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Classmates

Name: Classmates
Director: Umberto Riccioni Carteni
Released: 2026
Duration: 95 min

Representation Score

2.5/10

Limited

2026

Director

Umberto Riccioni Carteni

Runtime

95 minutes

Average Rating

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New Showbiz Analysis

Classmates centers on a female teacher navigating a hostile classroom in Rome. Her persistence against student disrespect forms the emotional core, offering a clear gender perspective. However, the film’s world feels culturally narrow. The setting—a technical school on Rome’s outskirts—highlights generational and class tensions but lacks racial, ethnic, or LGBTQ+ visibility. Authority is portrayed as fragile, and traditional education as strained. With no disability representation and limited demographic breadth, the film’s diversity impact remains modest. Its strength lies in its gendered viewpoint and cultural critique, not inclusive casting.

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Category Breakdown

Does Classmates have LGBTQ+ representation?

Minimal

No LGBTQ+ characters appear in the available material. The narrative concentrates on the teacher’s fraught relationship with her class, leaving queer identities and relationships entirely absent from the story.

How does Classmates portray gender?

Good

A female English teacher anchors the film, confronting hostility while persisting in her role. Her emotional labor and authority drive the plot, though the surrounding student body skews male-dominated in tone.

How racially and ethnically diverse is Classmates?

Minimal

Set in a technical school on Rome’s outskirts, the described cast shows no characters of color. The environment feels ethnically homogeneous, reflecting a narrow slice of contemporary Italian youth.

How does Classmates represent religion and culture?

Good

The film critiques traditional schooling through students’ open disrespect and rebellion. Cultural tension emerges from generational clashes and the fragility of institutional authority in a working-class Roman setting.

Does Classmates include disability representation?

Minimal

No characters with physical or mental disabilities are mentioned. The classroom dynamics focus on behavioral conflict rather than accessibility, neurodiversity, or disability representation.

Present on Screen

A female teacher leads the narrative, challenging a hostile classroom environment.
The film critiques traditional education through student rebellion and authority conflict.

Limited or Absent

No racial or ethnic diversity is visible in the described cast or setting.
Absence of LGBTQ+ characters or relationships limits representation.
No disability representation is present in the classroom or storyline.

Official Synopsis

An English teacher at technical school in the outskirts of Rome knows that her twenty-four eighteen-year-old students do not consider her a human being, speak ill of her, are ready to contest her and feel a morbid curiosity towards her private life. Still, she tries to relate to them and the result of this effort is "a great love story". Cenciarelli describes the lessons (strictly in English, despite the students' protestations), the fights in and out of class, the students' tricks, their need to confront each other, their desire to show themselves superior, their weaknesses and their loneliness. As the seasons go by, the relationship between teacher and students becomes more complicated and deepens, alternating moments of great enthusiasm and great disappointment, until the baccalaureate exam, about which she cares more than they do.

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