Un Monde

Directed by
Laura Wandel
Duration
81 min.
Year
2021
Language
French

Sometimes cinema is at its most potent and engrossing when it’s stripped down to the essentials. Playground, the accomplished, uncomfortably powerful first feature from the Belgian writer-director Laura Wandel, is a lean 72 minutes in length, with no score and a lithe, instinctive, handheld camera that rarely leaves the face of seven-year-old Nora (Maya Vanderbeque, superb). It is piercingly insightful without ever labouring the point.

The film Nora’s well-meaning attempt to intervene when she sees her older brother Abel (Günter Duret) targeted, exploring the way that bullying spreads like a stain through a primary and middle school community; how the taint of victimhood can override the bonds of friendship and family; and how doing the right thing can backfire catastrophically.

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Defiant feminist statement? Nihilistic, avant-garde comedy? Daisies remains a fascinating cinematic rollercoaster. Remarkable and refreshingly uncompromising, it continues to provoke, stimulate and entertain.