A Wider Angle Film Series: PLAYGROUND

For September, A Wider Angle, our monthly film series highlighting independent global cinema, will screen the 2021 drama Playground, written and directed by Belgian filmmaker Laura Wandel. The film, Wandel's feature length debut, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won a prestigious prize, and was selected as Belgium's entry for Best International Feature Film for the Academy Awards.

The briskly-paced film is shot from the eye-level and perspective of seven-year-old Nora, who is horrified by the escalating level of bullying her older brother Abel is being subjected to. Initially keeping silent at Abel's insistence, Nora finally tells her father, whose attempts at intervention only make matters worse. As things progress, Abel tries to gain acceptance by joining the victimizers in tormenting another student, leading to a dramatic final confrontation.

In French with English subtitles. (Running time 72 minutes)

Click here to read a review of the film.

A Wider Angle film series is made possible through funding provided by the Friends of the Library.