Observational documentary that takes a look at an entire academic year from a small rural one-class school where a single teacher takes care of their students, which are divided between the smallest, the middle ones and the oldest that would get into high-school in the upcoming years.

The documentary clearly succeeds in showing us the great variety of personalities that come together in school. Some kids are more extrovert, some are quieter, some are more of a troublemaker, some are more peaceful, some are better in some subjects, some are better in others… It is through all this “chaos” that our teacher has to adapt to each and one of his students to in a different manner to succeed on his role in teaching the various subjects: writing, vocabulary, counting, maths, drawing and painting, cooking and even going out on excursions.

Georges Lopez, or Monsieur Lopez for the kids, is a teacher who has spent his entire professional life teaching. Just as he tells us in the only moment that the fourth wall is broken, this was a profession that interested him from a very early age and since then he started to drive himself down this path thanks to the help and efforts from his parents that saw this as an opportunity for their son to have a better life than theirs. He shows this vocation especially through his tight proximity to his students and their issues, even the most personal ones, serving to them as a sort of confident but, at the same time, we can see some other weaknesses which is his lack of patience at certain instances mainly doing exercises with the smallest kids. That is definitely a positive aspect as it shows us how, even if someone dedicates 100% to what they do, perfection is basically unachievable.

But, nonetheless, even if we spent most of the time inside the school, probably the most entertaining moments are those back at the homes of the children. Those sequences serve as a clear showing of how essential the work of the teacher is as the parents miserably fail and are completely lost while trying to fill these shoes. Amazing and hilarious is the scene where an entire family argues on how to do a simple calculation for one of their kids’ homework.

In conclusion a very good movie that puts in display the importance of teachers and even more so in a setting such as in the one of the film, where a person with an special sort of sensibility and deeply empathic is needed to cover the position, and for sure Monsieur Lopez is one of such people. As we can see at the end of the film, while the kids leave school for their summer holidays, his look says it all: a person who is both relieved of having some rest but also and above anything else also saddened by seeing for the last time for a long period of time his adoptive children. But also being completely fair, if the film does not reach a higher level is because having seen how good the outside the school moments were, many more should have been included, as well as the short interview with the teacher could have been completely scrapped and kept the filming strictly distant, non-invasive and observational.