His bold approach leaves a mark on students and families
Story
A teacher from Brussels almost encourages students’ passion for reading and freedom of expression, despite the risks. I saw it at the 2023 film festival in Ghent (Belgium). To begin with, I must admit that I start off on the wrong foot, at least for the first half of the run. I felt a bit out of the loop: do they want to tell us something?? It is truly unfortunate that religious fanaticism and fundamentalism have an overwhelming influence on many people, so strong that they seek to threaten or even destroy those who do not believe in all ways.
tolerance to other beliefs
My initial problem with the story in question was that I mistakenly assumed that the filmmakers were asking to tell us that there are people who put the Koran and Sharia above national laws and thus ignore what we consider normal (we call it “civilized”). Now I am corrected because I know that they did not preach. And now in a positive way. First of all, I was delighted by the believable actors and even the believable circumstances in the school, where a significant part of the story takes place. The same applies to parents and neighbors who can be in any major city of any country.
There are not only direct threats here
For me, the development got a real boost thanks to some unexpected turns of events that kept the story moving and kept me interested in what was going on. Secondly, I was also fascinated by the growing problems of teachers and the school director, which became more and more difficult at each subsequent stage. meeting The main questions become obvious and move the story forward, unfortunately, without a clear way out. The meetings deeply involved me in the events and also showed me how difficult it is to find a balanced approach to the issues on the agenda. Thirdly, we also see a strong influence of social networks.
All this creates an unbridled storm in the media
And also the fact that everyone is talking about you, not knowing the real facts, but still forming opinions that spread with the speed of a forest fire. It’s easy to like a post, even if you don’t completely agree with it, it can be done quickly without thinking. In addition, writing negative text is also very easy, which is supported by the anonymity associated with unverified accounts. Before the advent of the Internet, we had a churchyard, a butcher’s shop and a pub where you could exchange gossip, but no, we have a much faster way with greater reach and speed. However, there is no happy ending, presumably, “Mission Impossible”, given the circumstances.
We see believable, even unsympathetic characters in their roles
This leaves us with no solution, but is there anything?? Overall, this is not a documentary showing that fundamentalists are becoming a bigger problem, and I’m sure the filmmakers know that we already knew that. This is a real story about a real school and its environment, real teachers and real students, whose families are also involved in it.
