French filmmaker Julie
Bertuccelli, who is perhaps best known to American audiences for her
award-winning 2003 film release of Since Otar Left (two prestigious
Cannes Film Festival awards, plus France’s César Awards winner) and her 2010
film adaptation of the Judy Pascoe novel, The Tree, turns her creative eye
towards subjects in the non-fiction world of documentary filmmaking with School
of Babel.
Icarus Films announced
this past week that this film festival favorite will be making its domestic DVD
debut on Oct. 17.
It is an interesting film
in that the first few minutes with the non-French language speaking class at
the Granges-aux-Belles school in Paris seems like noise and chatter … different
languages being spoken by immigrants new to France who find themselves being
mainstreamed in a special class.
The first day; the first
class with their teacher, Brigitte Cervoni, begins with “bonjour,” which
American audiences immediately recognize as “hello.” However, you quickly discover that “hello”
in each of the languages spoken by the participants can have many connotations
… this will not be easy.
Filmmaker Julie
Bertuccelli spent an entire year with the class, with much of the film work
being handled by her. She effectively
immersed herself into the process, even to the point of attending progress
updates with the parents. During this
year-long process we also discover the various reasons for these students —
from the four corners of the earth — to be in Paris and in this class (some of
which are life-and-death decisions).
With Bertuccelli’s School
of Babel we, as viewers, get a sense of the process and the progress,
plus there is an over-arching theme that comes through loud and clear … and
that is hope.
School of Babel is presented in French with English subtitles.
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