new wave films
School of Babel
A film by Julie Bertuccelli
Synopsis
They are Irish, Senegalese, Brazilian, Moroccan, Chinese… They are between eleven and fifteen years old and have just arrived in France. For a year they will be all together in the same ‘reception class’ of a Parisian secondary school, under the supervision of their teacher Brigitte Cervoni, the driving force behind the film. Twenty-four students, twenty-four nationalities… In this multicultural arena, we see the innocence, the enthusiasm and inner turmoil of these teenagers who, caught in the midst of starting out on a new life, learning a new language and adapting to a different culture, question our preconceived ideas and give us hope for a better world and a better future...
Official Selection, Rome Film Festival, 2013
Official Selection, Sheffield Doc/Fest
Trailer
Director — Julie Bertuccelli
The daughter of filmmaker Jean-Louis Bertucelli, Julie Bertucelli started a college degree in literature, to become a teacher, only to switch to philosophy, and, after graduating, turned to documentary filmmaking, working for the Ateliers Varan in 1993. She was an assistant director to Otar Iosseliani, Krzysztof Kieslowski and Bertrand Tavernier. She made her own directorial debut with the documentary Un monde en fusion (2001), while her feature debut came in 2003, with Since Otar Left, winner of the Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize and the César Award for Best First Film. She has directed many documentaries, and School of Babel, shot in a Paris school over the course of a year, is her latest one.
Filmography
Documentaries
1993 Un métier comme un autre - Documentaire TV
1994 Une liberté ! - Documentaire TV
1995 Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame – Documentaire
1995 Un dimanche en champagne – Documentaire
1996 Saint-Denis, les couleurs de la ville – Documentaire
1996 Trait d'union - Documentaire
1997 La Fabrique des juges - Documentaire TV
1999 Bienvenue au grand magasin - Documentaire TV
2000 Les Îles éoliennes (coll. Voyages, Voyages) - Documentaire TV
2006 Un monde en fusion - Documentaire TV
2006 Otar Iosseliani, le merle siffleur (Coll. cinéma de notre temps) - Documentaire TV
2007 Stage Les chantiers nomades : l'acteur concret au cinéma, autour des objets
2008 Le Mystère Glasberg - Documentaire TV
2008 Antoinette Fouque, qu'est-ce qu'une femme (Coll. Empreintes) - Documentaire TV
2013 La Cour de Babel - Documentaire Cinéma
Fiction films
2003 Depuis qu’Otar est parti... (Since Otar Left) Marguerite Duras Award 2004.
2010 L’Arbre (The Tree)
Cast & Credits
Directed by Julie Bertuccelli
Cinematography Julie Bertuccelli
Editing Josiane Zardoya
Original Music Olivier Daviaud
Sound Stephan Bauer & Benjamin Bober
Mixing Olivier Goinard
Produced by LES FILMS DU POISSON & SAMPEK PRODUCTIONS
In coproduction with ARTE FRANCE CINEMA
With the participation of
Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée
94 minutes Cert PG
With
Abir Gares (Tunisia)
Agnieszka Zych (Poland)
Alassane Couattara (Mali)
Andréa Drazic (Croatia)
Andromeda Havrincea (Romania)
Daniel Alin Szasz (Romania)
Daniil Kliashkou (Belarus)
Djenabou Conde (Guinea)
Eduardo Ribeiro Lobato (Brazil)
Felipe Arellano Santibanez (Chile)
Kessa Keita (United Kingdom)
Luca Da Silva (Northern Ireland)
Marko Jovanovic (Serbia)
Maryam Aboagila (Libya)
Miguel Angel Cegarra Monsalve (Venezuela)
Mihajlo Sustran (Serbia)
Naminata Kaba Diakite (USA and Ivory Coast)
Nethmal Mampitiya Arachchige (Sri Lanka)
Oksana Denys (Ukraine)
Ramatoulaye Ly (Mauritania)
Thathsarani Mampitiya Arachchige (Sri Lanka)
Xin Li (China)
Yong Xia (China)
Youssef Ezzangaoui (Morocco)
And Brigitte Cervoni (Professor of French the Collège de la Grange aux Belles
reception class, Paris, Xth arrondissement)
Images
Click any still to enlarge
The Critics
'Migrants were born as human beings, not as propaganda fodder for opportunist political xenophobes...you learn, or re-learn it in Julie Bertuccelli's superb School of Babel.'
Nigel Andrews, Financial Times or PDF of review
★★★★
Julie Bertuccelli's enchanting emotional doucmentary tracks a year in the life of 24 immigrant children. Allowed to be themselves, the subjects speak ina language we understand. It's as simple - and extraordinary - as that.'
Charlotte O'Sullivan, The Evening Standard
★★★★
'A lively and lovely verite doucumentary filmed over a school year in a classroom in Paris in which 24 teenagers of 22 different nationalities, often with sad stories to tell and sometimes uplifting ones, all find a voice of their own.'
Laurence Phelan, Radar Magazine, The Independent
‘An unusually uplifting social study, a collage of journeys to integration as well as maturity, and by simple design a breath of relief in the bogey-ridden immigration debate.’
Nick Bradshaw Sight & Sound
★★★★
‘It deftly weaves all of the children’s stories together into an important and compelling anthology that holds up a mirror to the emergent generation of multi ethnic immigrant children in France.”
Cormac O'Brien Little White Lies★★★★
'Bertuccelli's engaging movie is a simple humanist picture of hopeful young lives in a multiethnic society.'
Ed Porter, Culture Magazine, The Sunday Times
★★★★
'Simple, direct and powerful, this unadorned doc follows a class of 11 and 12-year-old immigrant students struggling to improve their French at a Parisian school. Laurent Cantet’s fictionalised Palme d’Or winner ‘The Class’ is clearly an inspiration, but ‘School of Babel’ is looser, less formal and perhaps more emotionally complex.'Tom Huddleston, Time Out
Film of the Week
'Quietly moving'
MovieMail
'Julie Bertuccelli captures the uniqueness of a Parisian class whose students struggle with integration'.
Jay Weissberg, Variety
‘Infinitely moving. We are immersed in a swirl of emotions each more intense than the other. So we cry and laugh a lot, or we hold back our tears, because these emotions are universal…The School of Babel is a soothing and invigorating film.’Jean-Baptiste Morain, Les Inrockuptibles
Links
Set of photos on zip file here
Quad Poster
Listen to a Q and A with Brigitte Cervoni (the teacher in School of Babel) held at Cine Lumiere in November 2014
Interview with Julie Bertuccelli in Sight & Sound
Visit La Cour de Babel's French website
French facebook page
Short interview in Indiewire
Study Guide for schools
Bookings & Press
For film bookings please contact Colin Burch at Verve Pictures — [email protected]. Press resources are on the Press page.