This is not an 'inspirational teacher' movie, but it is a small, quiet inspiration.

But ultimately it's a fascinating, sometimes exhilarating movie that seems to make a genuine contact with the classroom, and shows us an educational system struggling, and managing, to survive.

Cantet's film lulls the spectator into the rhythms of the everyday reality of school, belying a very carefully coordinated narrative structure that only becomes apparent in its final act.

The two-hour-plus runtime... breezes past thanks to its sheer unrelenting energy.