KJCKorea
Journal Central

<The Class> is a 2008 film directed by Laurent Cantet. Its original French title is <Entre les murs>, which means “Between the Walls”. It is based on the 2006 novel of the same title by François Bégaudeau. The film received the Palme d’Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. The ultimate aim of this study is to examine the French ZEP(the Priority Education Zones) and national identity of immigrants. The ZEP is a program started in 1982 that channels additional resources to schools in disadvantaged areas and encourages the development of new teaching projects. Focusing on a middle-school located in Paris, this film shows the various detailed aspects of actual ZEP. <The Class> turns out to be a documentary-like movie about the tense interaction between teacher and students in a French multiracial middle school which belongs to the ZEP. Meanwhile, this study also analyses the national identity represented by the young immigrants who attended this school. The main identity conflict occurred between Mali boy named Souleymane who had violent outbursts in class and other students from Morocco and the Caribbean. Through this film, we could understand the various images of young french immigrants.

young immigrants, ZEP, national identity, school, french affirmative action