The Class was something new in French filmmaking: an extended snapshot of the inside of a schoolroom in a working-class district of Paris, using a real-life ex-teacher and real-life schoolchildren and treading a provocative line between documentary and fiction.
Mr. Cantet surgically exposes the fault lines in France's faltering attempts at integration, showing exactly where the country's rigid model is often impervious to the experience of its non-native citizens.
Reviewing The Class in The New York Times, Manohla Dargis called it artful, intelligent and urgently necessary. The film touched a nerve in France, selling more than a million tickets.
I'm not going to speak about diversity with someone who invented the Ministry of National Identity, Mr. Cantet said at the time, referring to one of Mr. Sarkozy's more ill-fated initiatives.
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