Maya Vanderbeque makes an amazing debut as seven-year-old Nora, who tells on the boys bullying her brother with nightmarish consequences
Laura Wandel’s debut feature was Belgium’s official submission for the Oscars: a kid’s-eye-view nightmare of playground bullying impossible to watch without a sick, jittery feeling of rage and dread. The original French title is “Un Monde” – “A World” – and the playground is a universe of fear which we all edit out of our adult memories.
A rather amazing seven-year-old newcomer called Maya Vanderbeque stars as Nora, seen mostly in extreme, searching closeup. Just the opening shot of her crying face supplies pretty much enough emotional charge to power the whole film. Nora is just starting school, and her sobbing mini-drama-queen distress at the school gates discomforts her dad (Karim Leklou) and especially her older brother Abel (Günter Duret), a wannabe tough guy who doesn’t want his...
Laura Wandel’s debut feature was Belgium’s official submission for the Oscars: a kid’s-eye-view nightmare of playground bullying impossible to watch without a sick, jittery feeling of rage and dread. The original French title is “Un Monde” – “A World” – and the playground is a universe of fear which we all edit out of our adult memories.
A rather amazing seven-year-old newcomer called Maya Vanderbeque stars as Nora, seen mostly in extreme, searching closeup. Just the opening shot of her crying face supplies pretty much enough emotional charge to power the whole film. Nora is just starting school, and her sobbing mini-drama-queen distress at the school gates discomforts her dad (Karim Leklou) and especially her older brother Abel (Günter Duret), a wannabe tough guy who doesn’t want his...
- 4/21/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The awards took place In Brussels for the first time in two years after pandemic hiatus.
Laura Wandel’s drama Playground and Raphaël Balboni and Ann Sirot’s comedy drama Madly In Life tied as the top winners at Belgium’s Magritte awards on Saturday (February 12).
Both features won prizes in seven categories of the awards focused on French-language Belgian films.
Madly In Life stars Jo Deseure and Jean Le Peltier as a couple dealing with the dementia of the husband’s mother.
It won best film, screenplay, actress, actor, supporting actor (for Gilles Remiche), production design and costumes.
Playground...
Laura Wandel’s drama Playground and Raphaël Balboni and Ann Sirot’s comedy drama Madly In Life tied as the top winners at Belgium’s Magritte awards on Saturday (February 12).
Both features won prizes in seven categories of the awards focused on French-language Belgian films.
Madly In Life stars Jo Deseure and Jean Le Peltier as a couple dealing with the dementia of the husband’s mother.
It won best film, screenplay, actress, actor, supporting actor (for Gilles Remiche), production design and costumes.
Playground...
- 2/13/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Walking down the narrow staircases of your school hand-in-hand with a friend, struggling to learn to tie your shoes, or worrying about where to sit at lunch are among the moments that Wandel captures with an alarming sense of authenticity, to the point where her film could almost be confused for a documentary. “Playground” nimbly zeroes in on this world, seen through the eyes of the shy seven-year-old student Nora (Maya Vanderbeque), as she warily navigates her new school, the same that her older brother Abel (Günter Duret) attends.
Despite its title, however, Wandel’s focus is not the unbridled joy and freedom of childhood, though there are some rare instances of it here. Instead, she paints a harrowing picture of the memories many of us have tried to forget, where school is a warzone rife with violence and bullying, one that children are forced to largely maneuver alone.
Wandel...
Despite its title, however, Wandel’s focus is not the unbridled joy and freedom of childhood, though there are some rare instances of it here. Instead, she paints a harrowing picture of the memories many of us have tried to forget, where school is a warzone rife with violence and bullying, one that children are forced to largely maneuver alone.
Wandel...
- 2/11/2022
- by Susannah Gruder
- Indiewire
The camera never leaves young Nora (Maya Vanderbeque) throughout the entirety of Playground. Writer-director Laura Wandel needs us to follow her closely and understand the ups and downs of adolescence through eyes yet unversed in the unfortunate drama life has to offer. All this girl knows at the start is that she’s being left alone. Dad (Karim Leklou) isn’t allowed past the school gate, so his “goodbye” occurs well before the classroom door closes behind her. Older brother Abel (Günter Duret) has his own friends and teachers to deal with, the familiar hierarchy we’ve all experienced in our youth already known to him. So what’s Nora to do but wait for reunion? She bides time, says as little as possible, and rejoices at the recess bell.
Except things don’t get better. They will once she gets more acclimated, but right now life is only going to get worse.
Except things don’t get better. They will once she gets more acclimated, but right now life is only going to get worse.
- 2/9/2022
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
In a new series, Variety catches up with the directors of the films shortlisted for the International Feature Film Oscar to discuss their road to the awards, what they’ve learned so far, and what’s taken them off guard.
Laura Wandel is the auteur behind “Playground” (“Un Monde”), her first feature, about the reality of schoolyard bullying. The film stars newcomer Maya Vanderbeque as seven-year-old Nora, who struggles to know what to do as she witnesses her older brother Abel (Günter Duret) bullied at school. The story is told through Nora’s eyes, including all the cinematography, which is captured at waist-height.
Congratulations on being shortlisted! What does it mean to you to be shortlisted for the best international feature Oscar?
Well of course, this is totally immense, gigantic. It moves me in the sense that it means that the film will be seen [throughout] the whole world. And that...
Laura Wandel is the auteur behind “Playground” (“Un Monde”), her first feature, about the reality of schoolyard bullying. The film stars newcomer Maya Vanderbeque as seven-year-old Nora, who struggles to know what to do as she witnesses her older brother Abel (Günter Duret) bullied at school. The story is told through Nora’s eyes, including all the cinematography, which is captured at waist-height.
Congratulations on being shortlisted! What does it mean to you to be shortlisted for the best international feature Oscar?
Well of course, this is totally immense, gigantic. It moves me in the sense that it means that the film will be seen [throughout] the whole world. And that...
- 2/7/2022
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Belgium’s Oscar-shortlisted International Feature is an intimate child’s-eye view of bullying from debut writer-director Laura Wandel. Playground is known as Un Monde in its native French language, and this is set in a world of its own: the school that two siblings must navigate to get through the day.
We meet 7-year-old Nora (Maya Vanderbeque) and her older brother Abel (Günter Duret) when they are dropped off at the school gates by their father (Karim Leklou). Nervous Nora just wants to hang out with Abel, but he’s busy trying to impress children his own age. “I’m beating up the new kids with Antoine,” he says, setting the stage for a drama that’s dominated by peer pressure, shifting loyalties and violence — some of which could be life-threatening, even if the perpetrators may not realize it.
These may be children, but their problems feel as urgent as any thriller,...
We meet 7-year-old Nora (Maya Vanderbeque) and her older brother Abel (Günter Duret) when they are dropped off at the school gates by their father (Karim Leklou). Nervous Nora just wants to hang out with Abel, but he’s busy trying to impress children his own age. “I’m beating up the new kids with Antoine,” he says, setting the stage for a drama that’s dominated by peer pressure, shifting loyalties and violence — some of which could be life-threatening, even if the perpetrators may not realize it.
These may be children, but their problems feel as urgent as any thriller,...
- 1/31/2022
- by Anna Smith
- Deadline Film + TV
As the Best International Feature race comes to a close, it’s fairly clear to see who the favorites are. Since it premiered at Cannes last year, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car has dominated the landscape, featuring highly in international critics’ awards and even penetrating the consciousness of the Golden Globes. But—as we saw at Cannes, where Hamaguchi only went home with Best Screenplay—critical mass doesn’t always impact on industry juries. It’s just as possible, then, that the Oscar might go to Norway’s The Worst Person in the World, a gently subversive romcom by Joachim Trier that captures the exact moment in a director’s career when they nail their style. To add a third alternative, Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s sobering emigrant story Flee has been quietly making history, a feat that will be cemented if it becomes, as many think it might, the...
- 1/30/2022
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
Years ago, you wouldn’t have looked to the international feature category — or foreign-language film, as it was more insularly named back then — for much in the way of reflecting the modern world. World War II history and heartwarming child’s-eye family portraits were for a long time the staple diet of an award that shied away from more nervy topics. This year’s shortlist, however, sees a number of global filmmakers tackling more resonant, contemporary subject matter — with matters of gender and sexuality woven through a number of them.
Germany’s entry, “I’m Your Man,” even strays into science fiction, a genre rarely given much attention in this category. Maria Schrader’s witty, philosophical romantic comedy begins as a battle of wills between Alma (Maren Eggert), an independent, career-oriented academic, and Tom (Dan Stevens), the android boyfriend tailored directly for her needs in a lab — though it seems he...
Germany’s entry, “I’m Your Man,” even strays into science fiction, a genre rarely given much attention in this category. Maria Schrader’s witty, philosophical romantic comedy begins as a battle of wills between Alma (Maren Eggert), an independent, career-oriented academic, and Tom (Dan Stevens), the android boyfriend tailored directly for her needs in a lab — though it seems he...
- 1/22/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Playground Trailer — Laura Wandel‘s Playground / Un monde (2021) movie trailer has been released by Film Movement. The Playground trailer stars Maya Vanderbeque, Günter Duret, Karim Leklou, Thao Maerten, Lena Girard Voss, and Laura Verlinden. Crew Laura Wandel wrote the screenplay for Playground. Frédéric Noirhomme crafted the cinematography for film. Nicolas Rumpl conducted the [...]
Continue reading: Playground (2021) Movie Trailer: A 7-year-old Girl Witnesses the Continuous Bullying of Her Brother in Laura Wandel’s Film...
Continue reading: Playground (2021) Movie Trailer: A 7-year-old Girl Witnesses the Continuous Bullying of Her Brother in Laura Wandel’s Film...
- 12/29/2021
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
Maya Vanderbeque, second left, as Nora in Playground Photo: New Wave Belgian director Laura Wandel's debut film Playground steps down to child height and into the interpersonal politics of the school playground. We watch as Nora (Maya Vanderbeque) tentatively starts school and begins to make friends, gradually realising that Abel (Günter Duret), the older brother whom she idolises is being bullied. With the situation worsening but Abel insisting she keep things secret young girl faces a moral dilemma over who to tell and when, even as the effects of the bullying of one child start to snowball, showing how one act of school violence can begin to poison the atmosphere more generally. The film is screening at the French Film Festival UK, Leeds Film Festival and Cambridge Film Festival this month - and has been nominated as Belgium's submission for Best International Feature at the Oscars. We caught up...
- 11/16/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
These are the submissions for the international film Oscar by country. The deadline for entries was Nov. 1. A shortlist of 15 films will be announced Dec. 21 and the nominations will come out Feb 8. The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27 at the Dolby Theatre. The Academy has not yet released a final list of entries; Variety compiled this list from individual country’s announcements.
Albania
Two Lions Heading to Venice
Dir. Jonid Jorji
Key cast: Vasjan Lami, Alessandra Bonarotta
Logline: A pair of filmmakers heading to the Venice festival are sidetracked from their destination after meeting two adult film actors.
Prodco: Bajo Films
Algeria
Heliopolis
Dir. Djaafar Gacem
Key cast: Souhila Mallem, Mehdi Ramdani, Cesar Duminil
Logline: True story of an uprising in the Algerian town of Guelma that was violently put down by the colonial French rulers.
Prodco: Hewes Pictures
Argentina
The Intruder
Dir. Natalia Meta
Key cast: Guillermo Arengo,...
Albania
Two Lions Heading to Venice
Dir. Jonid Jorji
Key cast: Vasjan Lami, Alessandra Bonarotta
Logline: A pair of filmmakers heading to the Venice festival are sidetracked from their destination after meeting two adult film actors.
Prodco: Bajo Films
Algeria
Heliopolis
Dir. Djaafar Gacem
Key cast: Souhila Mallem, Mehdi Ramdani, Cesar Duminil
Logline: True story of an uprising in the Algerian town of Guelma that was violently put down by the colonial French rulers.
Prodco: Hewes Pictures
Argentina
The Intruder
Dir. Natalia Meta
Key cast: Guillermo Arengo,...
- 11/11/2021
- by Shalini Dore
- Variety Film + TV
School bullying remains, sadly, an enduring universal theme, with filmmakers from across the globe tackling it. This consideration of it from Belgian first-time feature director Laura Wandel finds something new to say by working the angles, both hunkering down to a child's pint-size perspective and shifting the emphasis by taking the viewpoint not of the child who is the initial victim of bullying but his kid sister instead. By doing this, she is able to not just the direct impact bullying has on the bullied but the indirect consequences of these actions as the toxicity created seeps across the schoolyard.
"You'll make lots of friends," Nora's dad (Karim Leklou) tells her as the seven-year-old (Maya Vanderbeque) clings tearfully to him at the gates on her first day. We've all been there, that first step into the unknown world of the classroom, the sheer anxiety of it etched across Nora's face.
"You'll make lots of friends," Nora's dad (Karim Leklou) tells her as the seven-year-old (Maya Vanderbeque) clings tearfully to him at the gates on her first day. We've all been there, that first step into the unknown world of the classroom, the sheer anxiety of it etched across Nora's face.
- 11/9/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
It has been claimed that women who forget the worst of the pain of childbirth are programmed to do so by evolutionary necessity: The selective editing of the body’s memory of trauma helps ensure the species continues to propagate itself. However true that is, a similar theory might account for why so many of us remember our school days in only the vaguest and fuzziest of terms: If we precisely recalled all those terrors, would we really force our own children to run the same gantlet? Laura Wandel’s janglingly visceral “Playground” is here to shatter that willful forgetfulness by .
Seven-year-old Nora (an extraordinary Maya Vanderbeque) is crying, clinging to her father (Karim Leklou) at the school gates. Now, and for the rest of the film, we are at her eye level: Frédéric Noirhomme’s dogged shallow-focus camerawork immediately creates a world where doorknobs and banisters are mounted dauntingly high,...
Seven-year-old Nora (an extraordinary Maya Vanderbeque) is crying, clinging to her father (Karim Leklou) at the school gates. Now, and for the rest of the film, we are at her eye level: Frédéric Noirhomme’s dogged shallow-focus camerawork immediately creates a world where doorknobs and banisters are mounted dauntingly high,...
- 11/1/2021
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
In other prizes Mounia Akl’s Costa Brava, Lebanon clinches Fipresci prize and inaugural Green Award.
Finnish director Teemu Nikki’s dark comedy-drama The Blind Man Who Did Not Want To See Titanic scooped the El Gouna Film Festival’s $50,000 Golden Star award for best narrative film over the weekend.
Its star Petri Poikolainen also won best actor for his performance as a blind man who ventures out of his small apartment and onto the streets to travel by train to spend time with his long-distance girlfriend.
The film world premiered in Venice’s new Horizon Extras where it won the audience award.
Finnish director Teemu Nikki’s dark comedy-drama The Blind Man Who Did Not Want To See Titanic scooped the El Gouna Film Festival’s $50,000 Golden Star award for best narrative film over the weekend.
Its star Petri Poikolainen also won best actor for his performance as a blind man who ventures out of his small apartment and onto the streets to travel by train to spend time with his long-distance girlfriend.
The film world premiered in Venice’s new Horizon Extras where it won the audience award.
- 10/25/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Teemu Nikki’s Venice and Antalya winner “The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic” won the Golden star for best film at the 5th El Gouna Film Festival in Egypt, which wrapped Friday. The award carries a cash prize of $50,000.
The film’s lead Petri Poikolainen won best actor, while Maya Vanderbeque, the young star of “Playground,” won best actress.
Egyptian filmmaker Omar El Zohairy’s Cannes winner “Feathers,” which also won the Variety award at El Gouna earlier, won best Arab narrative film.
Directors Aleksey Chupov and Natasha Merkulova’s “Captain Volkonogov Escaped” won the Netpac award and bronze in the narrative category.
Michel Franco’s “Sundown” won silver in the narrative competition, while Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s “Once Upon a Time in Calcutta” scored a special mention from Netpac.
Mounia Akl’s “Costa Brava, Lebanon” won the Fipresci award and the Green Star award for tackling environmental issues.
The film’s lead Petri Poikolainen won best actor, while Maya Vanderbeque, the young star of “Playground,” won best actress.
Egyptian filmmaker Omar El Zohairy’s Cannes winner “Feathers,” which also won the Variety award at El Gouna earlier, won best Arab narrative film.
Directors Aleksey Chupov and Natasha Merkulova’s “Captain Volkonogov Escaped” won the Netpac award and bronze in the narrative category.
Michel Franco’s “Sundown” won silver in the narrative competition, while Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s “Once Upon a Time in Calcutta” scored a special mention from Netpac.
Mounia Akl’s “Costa Brava, Lebanon” won the Fipresci award and the Green Star award for tackling environmental issues.
- 10/22/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Film Movement has acquired U.S. rights to rising Belgian filmmaker Laura Wandel’s critically acclaimed feature debut “Playground” (“Un Monde”) which opened at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and won the Fipresci award. Paris-based Indie Sales represents the film in international markets.
Tackling the timely issue of school bullying, “Playground” went on to play at the San Sebastian and the BFI film festivals. The heart-wrenching film follows 7-year-old Nora (Maya Vanderbeque) and her older brother Abel (Günter Duret) going back to school. When Nora witnesses Abel being bullied by other kids, she rushes to protect him by warning their father, but Abel forces her to remain silent. Caught in a conflict of loyalty, Nora will ultimately try to find her place, torn between children’s and adult’s worlds.
“The film is utterly unique — what Laura has accomplished with these children is an incredible feat of filmmaking,” said Michael Rosenberg,...
Tackling the timely issue of school bullying, “Playground” went on to play at the San Sebastian and the BFI film festivals. The heart-wrenching film follows 7-year-old Nora (Maya Vanderbeque) and her older brother Abel (Günter Duret) going back to school. When Nora witnesses Abel being bullied by other kids, she rushes to protect him by warning their father, but Abel forces her to remain silent. Caught in a conflict of loyalty, Nora will ultimately try to find her place, torn between children’s and adult’s worlds.
“The film is utterly unique — what Laura has accomplished with these children is an incredible feat of filmmaking,” said Michael Rosenberg,...
- 10/14/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Director Laura Wandel’s Foreign Bodies played in the short film section of Official Selection in 2014.
Paris-based Indie Sales has boarded sales on Belgian director Laura Wandel’s feature debut Playground, which has been selected to screen in Cannes in Un Certain Regard next month.
As well as the Un Certain Regard prize, the drama will also be in the running for Cannes’ Caméra d’Or, open to all first features across the Official Selection and parallel sections of Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week.
Playground is about a seven year-old girl and her older brother who start at a new...
Paris-based Indie Sales has boarded sales on Belgian director Laura Wandel’s feature debut Playground, which has been selected to screen in Cannes in Un Certain Regard next month.
As well as the Un Certain Regard prize, the drama will also be in the running for Cannes’ Caméra d’Or, open to all first features across the Official Selection and parallel sections of Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week.
Playground is about a seven year-old girl and her older brother who start at a new...
- 6/3/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
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