Entre Les Murs

It is an incredibly enormous amount of time that we spend in between the four walls of the classrooms we have been educated in throughout our lives, maybe only with the possible exception of university years. I had 5 years of elementary school and 7 years of high school, and in each of them it is almost like I saw my teachers and my classmates more than my family. When you get out of the high school classroom for the last time at the age of about 18, you are likely to feel as if you are to step out to a whole different universe, and in a way it is a whole different universe.

What I witnessed today, while viewing Entre Les Murs, the 2008 Palme d'Or winner film directed by Laurent Cantet, I have thought of several things, from the surprises it brought into my mind, such as a definitive comment of the teachers' side that I so long looked at from a certain view no matter at what age, to the similarities and more likely differences between the education system I saw in the film and that of I personally experienced years ago - and perhaps is still experienced by so many, in Turkey. However, possibly one of the first surprises of the movie is that it is not a documentary but is at certain points fictional, although based on the book of the leading actor's own teaching experiences and as a genre in cinema it would only fit to drama. Yes, the film is based on the 2006 novel of the same name by François Bégaudeau, who also acts as the teacher in the movie. The book is that of a semi-autobiography, and Monsieur Bégaudeau is today more of a journalist, author and actor.

Entre Les Murs shows us what goes on in a classroom throughout one school year, in French course, in an inner city middle school in Paris. In order to focus fully on the intended subject, and in a way to increase the somewhat tension in the viewer, the film is strictly limited to scenes inside the school, with about 75 of them in the very same classroom mentioned. There is not much of a hint of the students' personal lives, and perhaps that is the very point that the students try to make at one time about writing their self-portraits; the thing is, the school is an acting stage, for everyone without an exception, an acting that is in a way a primitive version of internet chat dialogues where you can pretend to be anyone, and thus, the sentence 'your lives interest me' expressed by the teacher is in fact non-sense and pedagogically incorrect for the life of any of the sides really is not interesting at all, for either sides. This is why, the film does not fill us with unnecessary details of the students' or the teachers' personal lives, and instead tells us to settle with what we actually see and guess or create stories ourselves; for example, there is a scene where two close girl friends named Esmeralda and Khoumba suddenly decide to sit away from each other, and we can dig this story along with the teacher only as deep as the students allow us to, they just wanted a change, however you may as well go on yourself with a quarrel between the two about whatever you can imagine. A few days later, they would start sitting together, again by any possible reasons.

While the film takes an interestingly direct view of the teachers' side, it does not 'take sides'. According to our own interpretation, in the end we decide whether it is harder to be a student or a teacher, but the movie itself will just tell you that they both are tough positions. This aspect of the movie is in fact what attracts it closer to being a documentary, the closest that a drama can ever get. I,myself, see that it is hard to be a teacher within that system of teaching, and also would want to participate in it as a student.


The very similarity of that system with that of what I had been through is the constant emphasize and profound focus on punishment. Especially during the first meeting of the teachers accompanied by the students' and parents' representatives, it is, in a semi-hidden way, implied that the teachers define their students and their education system, through punishments, rather than rewarding. For me, learning is the very essence of my being, however, that does not make the constitution called school the only essential parameter in that equation, with me obeying without question within a herd mentality, and if questioning is one of the most important tools of learning, than the students being punished, mostly because in the very root of their presence at the school, there remains a complete mystery of why there, why between those walls, is to take the easy way out for the teachers. Many of those rebellious children can be put in a more proper manner if simply they are convinced, with contemporary methods, it will be the best thing for them to go through this learning stage. This certainly may look naive, and I am not a professional in this area so as to offer any definite method, however, it may be a starting point.

In contrast to the one basic similarity stated above, I have found the two education systems completely different (I must here remind you that I am only referring to my own experiences as a student, which happened to be years ago!). While in our classroom, we hardly ever expressed our thoughts, extreme or ordinary, and were hardly ever encouraged to do so, these students are expressing themselves so much up to a point where the teacher can not even talk himself. Now some teachers would argue with this teacher's method, and yes they even do in one of the IMDB forums, but I want to congratulate him for being so open-minded and perhaps even brave; brave, because at most of the time this openness to lead any idea expression to a certain level of debate leads instead to a chaos in the classroom which is harder to handle. And this method of teaching also requires even more effort from the teacher, for today's students are not taking only what he/she gives to them, but they also are aware of anything happening in the world, to the only extent of how much they want to know, through TV, through internet, ie, to the easily accessible information. So remind us, once again, why choose to obey a certain institution's rules while I can get access to anything at home, in my room? Once again, you have to do more, to convince these students.


I can write more and more about this subject, however I will stop here for the moment; but before I do, here is a little recommendation: before or after you watch the film, it does not matter, visit its official website http://www.sonyclassics.com/theclass and read the section Film, especially the Cantet - Bégaudeau interview, it will give incredibly interesting facts about the story's evolution and - all amateur - adolescent cast. So I am willing to take back the statement I made a few days ago, here on my blog, about losing my faith in French cinema, it could not prove me wrong in any better way; however, they should stick more to that real France of today, with millions of different voices from different races and nations speaking up, instead of the seemingly high-qualified intellectuals.