The Class

The Class(English title) – Entre les Murs(French Title)(translate :Between the Walls)

The last movie that I saw that takes place in a class room was The History Boys, adapted from a Tony Award winning play of the same name, about six boys who prepare to get into Oxford. However, Entre les Murs(in a documentary style) explicitly shows the struggle between the Class Supervisor and his students of well diversed multi ethnic group aged 13-15 during a 9 month period (academic year). What this movie provides unlike most other School based movies is this seems very realistic and closer to the truth.

The film follows a period of a Class supervisor of a school in Paris, François Marin(François Bégaudeau-who also wrote the novel of the same name from which this movie is adapted) who believes in keeping his easily distracting class engaged in what they learn every day. Among the group of students are notably Esmeralda and Khoumba, tries to pull Francois’s leg at every opportune moment, Souleymane whose attitude is unwelcomed, Wei a calm, smart Chinese kid who might be deported because of his illegal status in France. As much as François tries to keep his class in the subject he teaches and part discipline as much does the students tries to abstain from him. For instance, When he is about to explain the past imperfect tense with an example with the subject as ‘Bill’, his class questions him as to why does he resort white names when he could easily use regular names in which all the students say out names from their culture or after they read a memoir of Anne Frank, he asks all his students to write an autobiography only to face questions as to why they should write as they have lived only for 13 years or as they are not famous. All these instances happen only to make him an angry man therefore giving out sarcastic answers to hide his anger and later showing anger to the class representatives (calling them ’skanks’) which led a series of events to suspending Souleymane(and later expulsion) and an embarrassing inquiry with the principal and other officials . After all that François still cared about his students, whether the expulsion of Souleymane would have him send back to Mali to work in the fields or whether he could help to keep Wei in France or seeing to that he could discipline his students and get them to learn something.

Whats amazing about this movie is that even though it is a semi autobiography of François the stance of the film is not to the student or the teachers. I didn’t quite get a scene at first in which a teacher was points out each in a list to a new teacher in the school as nice, nice, not nice, not nice etc., it was after some time that it struck me that list is of the students or the scene where the teachers discuss whether they could contribute some money for Wei and represent him with recommendation at the court, only for the tone to change because one teacher couldn’t contribute as she is two months pregnant therefore opening a champagne bottle , made me baffle whether they truly cared about Wei, but when they raised to toast wishing a good Wei and his family made me understand their helplessness.

The performances in the movie is natural enough for the audience to take part in the class. As I read, most of these folks acted for the first time, especially the kids in the classroom. A commendable mention about the ones who played the characters of Esmeralda and Khoumbha, whose characters were so lively.

The closeups and the long continuous shots in the classroom only makes us part of the classroom and it makes us think and understand the frustrations of the teacher and the students. Unlike most of the schools in India where the teacher dictates and the students take notes, in this movie a rather democratic view of a classroom is shown, which is contradictory to the system over here for which I bet it will not be welcomed until some years. I remember similar classroom scenes during my school years in Montfort when we were busy trying to change the topic of the class by asking silly questions. I remember in my French class, going from verb conjugation to French lifestyle to French movies to rajnikanth movies, before the teacher knows it the period is over or like when we used to fight with the teachers when they call us names or when we insult their funny accents. School life for students or teachers is not easy, there is a lot to live up to but when we look back we know that it wasn’t that bad.

My break

The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

I was in UAE for two weeks.

After spending 2 years and 9 months on Mumbai, I have to confess I am still querulous about this place. Maybe because I place the same unpleasant boring events that happen everyday before anything else that I overlook the good things and places passing by everyday/where I can be. So with all these, I really hoped for a break and it was then I got a mail from my Dad ordering me to take a break and meet up him in Sharjah for 10 days. Even though I agreed reluctantly, I was jumping like a kid with excitement in my mind and I have to say I had a good time over there.

After landing at Sharjah airport, it was women in their likes of black purdah and the men with their white cassocks. I feared that I ‘d have a communication problem, but somehow the checkout process happened quickly without me saying a word.

The next ten days were clasped with road trips, visits to different malls, shopping, movies and of course good food. Sharjah was hot in the mornings, but less humid than most places in India. I restrained from going out in the mornings and stayed at home, besides Dad had work and he is free only on Fridays. I do regret that now, because I could have gone out by myself. Traversing and communicating wasn’t very difficult. UAE is filled immigrants who come for work from different countries especially India(especially Kerala), therefore communicating is easier for Indians. Almost every body speaks Hindi or at least understand it.English is also a common language there considering the fact that it is a business area.

In the evenings we had gone to around as it is cooler, the place is mostly filled with buildings that were mostly Offices, Shopping Malls and Super markets. I got myself a Sony Cybershot DSC-W220-I still haven’t got a hang on the Cam, but I think its alright so far, except that I found the noise level is pretty high when dark. Another day we took a long drive to Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) to look around. On the Highway from Sharjah to RAK we get to see the deserts, on which we could find a lot camels. My Dad mentioned that nowadays the RAK government has added restrains along the road to prevent the camels from entering the road because years back it used to be dangerous to drive as the camels would suddenly enter the road and if an collision with the camel occured, the driver used to fined. The old RAK when compared to the new RAK isn’t much developed. It is mostly a rather dry place, but there were interesting sights to see. I noticed a farm in which Ostriches are bred, airport which is under development at midst of the desert.

Our Trip to Dubai was good but it was pretty tough for Dad to keep track as it seems confusing with many flyovers. We did get lost when we were on our way to The Dubai Mall. The Dubai Mall is largest Shopping Mall in the world. I took a walk in the Aquarium Tunnel which costed25 Dhirams. It was awesome. But I missed the The Aquarium Discovery as couldn’t find time. The Mall is so big that we had to walk a lot. It was so huge and many sections that Dad sat down to rest while I went inside a Book store to check out the Comics/Graphic Novel section. When I returned I was surprised to find him dozing off on couch. In Dubai we also went in the exquisite Palm Islands and the Dubai Marina. Both were quite a sight, but I think its better when seen from a helicopter. We also had a distant view of the Burj Al Arab. I wanted to get closer and take a picture, but it wasn’t possible with busy roads and also the difficulty of a parking space.

I did catch the screening of X Men Orgins: Wolverine and Star Trek at the Grand Sahara in Sahara Mall. I don’ t expect those movies to release anytime in India because of the disagreement between the Film distributors and the Movie Halls in India. There aren’t even many movies releasing in India.

About food, the place is filled with fast food joints and other regional restaurants. The only fast food joint I went to was Burger King. Damn! those burgers are good. I don’t think I’ll have any of those McDonalds in India for some days( I do regret not taking the Happy meal, it was Star Trek movie season and I wanted the Spock toy) . Again as I mentioned before, because Sharjah is filled immigrants, therefore one would find variety of restaurants. You’d find a lot of Afgani, Lebanese, Pakistani and Indian restaurants. I decided not to have Indian as I wanted to seize this opportunity to explore the different Middle East and other Asian foods. I particularly liked Afghan foods. They are cheap and it sure does hit the spot. Lebanese food is a little similar to the Afgani food,with their hammoos and bread but I found more sea food dishes on their Menu.

There, with stomach happy and my mind relaxed, I have to conclude that my break to UAE was welcoming. Something I wanted for a long time- to travel and do something different from my daily chores.

…to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life-forms and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before.

After I came out of the airport, Dad took me to have dinner at Burger King. (Damn! those burgers were good. I don’t think I’ll have any of those McDonalds in India for some days). I was tempted to order one of those kid meal(it was the Star Trek movie season and for meal they givea Star Trek character toy, which talks too!!) but refrained. I didn’t want Dad to see the kid inside me(Oh! how much I regret not having my hands on the Spock toy).