© Condor Films
LEARN, to put your hand up, not to make mistakes. Wanting the teacher to say "well done". Learning to read, write and count isn’t always easy... LEARN to teach the children, seeing in their eyes what they find difficult, encouraging them, helping them. In the playground, LEARN to talk rather than to fight. LEARN: this is what is happening in a primary school of the Republic, in a town in the outskirts of Paris.
Cinematography : Claire Simon
Sound : Pierre Bompy
Editing : Luc Forveille
Sound : Pierre Bompy
Editing : Luc Forveille
Production : Les Films Hatari
Distribution : Condor Films
Distribution : Condor Films
Claire Simon came to cinema through editing. Récréations (1998) and Coûte que coûte (At All Costs) (1995), both released in cinemas, will be remembered as a documentary revolution in French cinema. Since then, she has alternated between documentaries and feature films. Claire Simon films the people around her as heroes: the young children in Récréations, the stressed-out manager in Coûte que coûte, the child-thief in Sinon, oui (A Foreign Body) (1997), the fiery young girl in Ça brûle (On Fire) (2006), Mimi (2003) in love with women, Nathalie Baye as a family planning counsellor in Les bureaux de Dieu (God’s Offices) (2008), Nicole Garcia’s passion for Reda Kateb in Gare du Nord (2013), Stéphanie selling her charms in Les Bois dont les rêves sont faits (The Woods Dreams are Made of) (2015), young people taking on the fortress that is the La Fémis film school in Le Concours (The Graduation) (2016), and Premières solitudes (Young Solitude) (2018) about young high school students like Hugo weeping over the silence of their families, Le Fils de l'épicière, le maire, le village et le monde (The Grocer’s Son, the Mayor, the Village and the World) (2020), Yann Andréa’s questioning of Duras’ lover in Vous ne désirez que moi (I Want to Talk About Duras) (2021), and the epic of the female body in Notre corps (Our Body) (2023).