"Un monde", 2021

"Un monde": A Child's View of School Bullying

Laura Wandel's poignant debut about what you can't keep quiet about

Nora (Maya Vanderbeck) hugs her father (Karim Lecla) and can't stop crying. Ahead of her is a step into the unknown, the nightmares of elementary school and the hardships of socialization. Fortunately, there is an older brother, Abel (Günther Düré), to whom the girl rushes at the bell at recess. But the boy has no time to play with his little sister, and his peers are always looking for an excuse to find an object of ridicule. This fate falls on Abel, and Nora does not understand why the classmates are cruel, why her brother can not stand up for himself, or why in the end does not tell his father everything? The girl's world is falling apart: children's games are not particularly safe, and adults are not always there to help.

Laura Wandel's first feature film is both a deafening scream and a quiet documentary-style conversation. The director chooses such an optic of shooting that it is as if we are peeking into the world of children: the camera moves slowly at the eye level of the young actress, and the viewer does not look down on these characters from either height or experience of years lived. It is the dense layer of realism that makes the narrative so frighteningly relatable and sensual. And it is the absence of high-minded dialogue and sheer candor alone that compels one to search one's pockets for handkerchiefs.

It is not at all surprising that the director draws the children's world exclusively in an academic setting, a place where one undergoes a series of initiations and finds (and often loses) oneself. It is also interesting that the key scenes unfold not in stuffy classrooms studying certain material, but in the recesses, the true face of school, where notions of reality are formed through the noise, running and chatter.

The picture is absolutely brilliant in its illustration of how regularly occurring action can begin to seem like something normal. People who have been victims of bullying easily switch to the position of the aggressor and find their own scapegoat - it seems to be the only way to control the situation and create a semblance of armor. It's as if the playground is not meant for fun, but for real hunger games, and the "it's either you or you" rule is in the air. Should we be surprised at this outcome when adults are careful not to notice altercations in sandboxes and school toilets? When the moral compass goes off course, and it's a good thing if there are elders ready to lead them back down the dangerous path of adulthood. Wandel's film, while chamber-like and short-spoken, has a knockout effect for the simple reason that almost all of us have experienced bullying in one way or another: some as offenders, others as victims, still others as silent witnesses.

"Un monde" is a perfectly tiny movie with small characters, a small timeline, and a huge heart whose pulsation does not let up for the entire 72 minutes. That's enough time to start a dialogue and urge humanity to keep its eyes open when necessary.

This article was sponsored by Heather Torretta