Maya Vanderbeque, Günter Duret, Karim Leklou, Laura Verlinden
Writer-director Laura Wandel’s extraordinary debut has won multiple awards including the Un Certain Regard FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes and the Sutherland Prize (First Feature) at LFF, as well as being selected as Belgium’s entry for the Best International Feature at the upcoming Oscars.
Anxious seven-year-old Nora (Maya Vanderbeque) must go back to school despite longing to stay with her dad (Karim Leklou). But although Nora’s the one who purportedly needs looking after, she soon becomes responsible for her older brother, Abel (Günter Duret), who’s being bullied by the other kids. Nora is in a quandary. Should she tell the adults or remain silent in solidarity with Abel? And if she does tell the adults, will they help, and what will the ramifications be?
The original title of the film – Un monde – describes the all-encompassing nature of school life and how when you are a child, the playground’s politics, conflicts and abuses both form your entire world and indicate the equally stratified adult world outside school gates. Intimately, concisely immersing you in the lives of its brilliantly naturalistic young performers over its brief 72-minute runtime, with the camera held steady at Nora’s eye-height, Playground is bold, lucid and gripping and a tremendous calling card for Wandel.
