26/03/2024 - Teddy Lussi-Modeste immerses himself in the hot waters of the world of education today, following an idealistic teacher caught up in an increasingly destabilising situation

“I’m writing down everything you say. For the police. It’s my mother’s idea, she says that you’ll end up in prison with the rapists and that you’ll be raped.” How could a young, enthusiastic and likeable French teacher working in a middle school in the Paris banlieue end up in a situation where one of his students would talk to him that way? This is the subject tackled by Teddy Lussi-Modeste in The Good Teacher, inspired by his own personal experience. The film, whose director was revealed in 2011 with Jimmy Rivière [+see also:
trailer
interview: Teddy Lussi-Modeste
film profile] and appeared in Toronto and San Sebastian New Directors in 2017 with The Price of Success [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Teddy Lussi-Modeste
film profile], is released in French cinemas by Ad Vitam on 27 March.

Co-written by the director together with Audrey Diwan, The Good Teacher is another entry in the recent wave of films set in schools, an environment that reflects society at large and one that has always interested filmmakers, but which appears to fascinate them even more today, as the recent films The Teachers' Lounge [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: İlker Çatak
interview: Leonie Benesch
film profile] by İlker Çatak, Without Air [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Katalin Moldovai
film profile] by Katalin Moldovai, A Real Job [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Lilti
film profile] by Thomas Lilti, and About Dry Grasses [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
film profile] by Nuri Bilge Ceylan seem to indicate. This codified territory (with teachers, admin staff, students, their parents, the microcosm of the classroom, public and private spaces, etc), each filmmaker approaches from their own angle. The one chosen by Teddy Lussi-Modeste is all the more relevant for touching on another very contemporary phenomenon: the increased (and rightly so) attention paid to complaints by young people in cases of inappropriate behaviour from a teacher. But things are not always as clear-cut as they might seem, and good intentions can also be the source of misunderstandings with dangerous consequences. 

It is in one such spiral that we find the film’s protagonist, Julien (François Civil), who is accused, to his complete surprise, of a seduction attempt by his student Leslie (Toscane Duquesne). From an initial mood of relative serenity (in part helped by the fact that he is gay, which will later be the cause for another disillusionment, born from an ambiguous rapport with a friendly colleague), the idealistic Julien progressively grows more and more anxious. The direction of the school takes some precautions to protect itself and only half-heartedly supports him, while Leslie’s brother files a complaint with the police and threatens his life (waiting for him outside everyday after class), the solidarity of colleagues soon dissipates, his love life with Walid (Shaïn Boumedine) suffers from the growing weight of events (which even spill out into social networks) and his lessons (considering himself innocent, he has refused to stop teaching) become more and more unmanageable. This is also cause for painful self-reflection for Julien, about his way of approaching the world and his vision for his work. The situation is a perfect storm, from which he will not come out unscathed… 

Very believable in its description of everyday life at school, The Good Teacher manages to nail down all the stakes of a delicate subject perfectly, by placing itself in the teacher’s shoes without ever really portraying the other characters as being fully in the wrong. All of them are victims of and trapped by this situation, by the mistaken perception of a teenager, by a difficult social context, by administrative and institutional systems, and Julien himself by his own idealism. A tableau laid bare by a thriller that efficiently addresses the eminently topical question of how school can absorb social ills, and the way things can quickly get out of hand to the detriment of well-meaning individuals.

Produced by Kazak Productions and co-produced by France 3 Cinéma, and by Belgium’s Frakas Productions, Voo, Be TV and Shelter Prod, The Good Teacher is sold internationally by Indie Sales.

(Translated from French)