
High School II
1994

2014
Director
Julie Bertuccelli
Runtime
89 minutes
Average Rating
No ratings yetSynopsis
They just arrived in France. They are Irish, Serbs, Brazilians Tunisians, Chinese and Senegalese ... For a year, Julie Bertuccelli filmed talks, conflicts and joys of this group of students aged 11 to 15 years, together in the same class to learn French.
Overall Score
Fair
Category Breakdown
LGBTQ+ Representation
The film focuses on heteronormative adolescent attractions, such as the relationship between Alice and Benjamin. It lacks explicit depictions of non-cisnormative identities or narratives that critique heteronormativity.
Gender Representation
The narrative deconstructs gendered stoicism by prioritizing the emotional landscapes of both male and female students. It emphasizes vulnerability and emotional intelligence over traditional masculine or feminine archetypes.
Racial & Ethnic Diversity
The film excels by centering a multicultural classroom of Irish, Serbian, Brazilian, Tunisian, Chinese, and Senegalese students. This organic integration avoids tokenism and presents a complex study of globalized coexistence.
Religious & Cultural Diversity
The story adopts a humanist perspective, focusing on how students navigate a new culture through social negotiation. It subtly critiques Western social stability by favoring fluid, globalized identities.
Disability Representation
There are no prominent or centrally featured characters with visible or invisible disabilities. The narrative focus remains strictly on linguistic and social integration.
Strengths
Areas for Improvement
AI Analysis
School of Babel is a significant work of observational cinema that replaces monolithic cultural perspectives with a polyphonic, international one. Its primary strength is the organic integration of racial and ethnic diversity, presenting a post-colonial reality where the collective is diverse and shifting. While the film avoids heavy identity politics, it succeeds in disrupting conventional educational narratives. It moves beyond mere presence to explore the intersection of different linguistic and ethnic backgrounds through a sophisticated lens. However, the film remains limited in its exploration of specific identity markers. It lacks representation for disability and provides little engagement with non-cisnormative identities, focusing instead on conventional developmental milestones.

1994

2016

2016
2008

1969

2016

2003

2013

2021

2021

1975

2018
No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts on this movie!
Use the rating form above to leave a star rating and optional review.