SnoopyStyle Sonia Bergerac (Isabelle Adjani) is a stressed-out teacher dealing with the aggressive Muslim kids. She confronts Mouss during class and a gun falls out of his backpack. She picks it up and tries to teach Molière while holding the class hostage. Troublemakers Mouss and Sébastien had been picking on Mehmet. The principal had demanded that Sonia stop wearing skirts to appease the aggressive religious crowd and she pointedly refused. She demands a Skirt Day when all the girls wear skirts.This is quite confrontational and definitely not for the politically correct. There is a battle for the soul of Islam and the movie isn't gentle about the situation. There is an uncomfortable clash of cultures and this dives right into the middle of it. Adjani returns to show her acting prowess. This movie tries to tackle big issues and not everybody will like how it's done.

ntsci I suspect every teacher has wondered if she/he be able to get the kids attention by pointing a gun at them. Having spent some time teaching I can really emphasize with Sonia Bergerac in this film. I loved the part where she starts to actually teach the lesson on Moliere and uses the gun to force an unruly student to cooperate. Of course real education can't function like that, but its probably a fantasy of many teachers.The film contains quite a bit of irony, and random chaos. I don't wish to give away too much of the story, other than to say taking the students hostage was accidental, and once she had started she was completely unable to figure out how to get out of the situation. The film has a very claustrophobic feel to it. They are trapped in a small little drama while outside larger dramas unfold including political issues, debates about how the crisis should be handed by the police, dispute between cultures, and sexual exploitation of some students. But Sonia and her class are locked within a small sound proof room.Isabelle Adjani once again demonstrates that she is a extraordinary actress who is entirely convincing in her role. Vulnerable at times, and scary in the next moment.The film has comic moments such as her demand for a national skirt day, but is largely dramatic and tragic in its tone. The film explores the clash of cultures, prejudice, and the real meaning of sexual liberation.

CrisPat The moment the teacher kidnaps her students and then gets into a hotchpotch of moral dilemmas which make her character ambivalent - obviously she had good intentions but goes the wrong way to achieve them, you would expect her to die in the end. It is disappointing to see that you are not disappointed - yes she dies.The whole film starts from a very strong and challenging premise - the difficult assimilation of the Muslim immigrants into the French society - and just builds towards the inexorable death of the heroine. It didn't grip me though, and I found the pace slow. In its quest for social exploration, it lost the elements of the thriller. And as a social drama, it had too much thriller recipe to allow for the proper exploration of any of the characters.It also doesn't have a credible thread. In a high school where students shout at and threaten the teacher, carry revolvers and film the rape of their colleague, you would expect the soft looking, elegantly dressed woman to give up her high ideals at the first bullying or beating. She is not congruent with anything around her. Mouss, the other pupils, the minister representative - they are all half-baked characters, you only wonder why do they do what they actually do. The good-cop policeman is probably the worst construed - we understand vaguely he's got some family troubles in the background, but we can't really understand what drives him. With his superior not objecting to what is presumably a clear violation of procedure, he goes in for a heart-to-heart talk with the armed terrorist, he keeps protecting the teacher despite pressure from everyone around him etc. His motives get too little air time to be credible.Yes, Adjani acts very solidly, the rest of the cast is on and off. But for a film to be enjoyable, it takes a lot more than that.

michel-verdier Adjani, as high school teacher, attempts to hold a class on a Moliere's play in the school's small theater. As usual, she receives continuous intimidation, pressures and insults from chauvinist pupils. Then a scrum between irresponsible pupils lead to a gun accidentally falling down at the foot of Sonia. Taking it, she wounds by accident one in the leg, and then initiating an hostage taking. Outside the school, police and political try to react to the situation. Inside the building, using the gun Sonia requires from his students her own vision and finally try to place them in front of their own contradictions : in a real secular society one religion should not be replaced by another one under the pretext of cultural exchanges and social improvements . This film points a finger at the whole confusion in today Western schooled society. This film presents a current and realistic situation!