French classic comes to town

Islamabad

Director: Olivier Ayache-Vidal

Script: Olivier Ayache-Vidal,Ludovic du lary

Pakistan National Council of the Arts in collaboration with the Embassy of France and Alliance Francaise Islamabad, unspooled French film The Teacher (Les Grands Esprits) at PNCA.

Directed and co-scripted from an original screenplay by Olivier Ayache-Vidal in 2017, this is a remarkable film about teacher-student relationship. Professor Francois of French literature is from a highly prestigious institute. He has enjoyed the best life he has known in the intellectual upper class society of Paris. The conflict and drama begins when he is forced into accepting a challenging job in the troubled outskirts of Paris at a public school. He is brought in by the Ministry of Education to raise the quality of teaching in the neglected suburb the film then combines drama and comedy into one genre. Audiences get interested in how a dignified professor would relate to undisciplined rough and tough pupil and in return how pupil would react to professor.

These are the two sides of the coin. "I am sick of the kids and can't work with them" says the professor. In return the student shouts back "I am not your dog ". At times, the professor must push the students to the edge to keep them alert and attentive. Gradually (and with difficulty) both sides begin to mould, understand, and even care for each other.

The Teacher is a heart-warming film with some funny situations. We get to see two sides from two opposite ends of social and academic spectrum thrown in together. This film is a comment on change of methods of punishing students in a way which were outmoded, inappropriate and counterproductive. This plays in the background. The film won several awards at international film festivals. It runs for 106 minutes. — aijazzgul@gmail.com