Entre Les Murs, directed by Laurent Cantet, 128 minutes, 2008, France

Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or
 

The students in a high school in a tough Parisian neighborhood
 and a teacher who tries to find ways to reach his multi-cultural students
are the stars of this film.
The African, Arab and Asian 14-15-year-olds trigger
the stark realization that life is different in other parts of the world.



It's a portrait of the kind of school that you can hardly imagine.
The students are brash and undisciplined.
They have come from elsewhere and are trying to eke out a life in a new country.

The subject of teacher versus students has been tackled before
 in both fiction films and documentaries:

Blackboard Jungle  (Richard Brooks, USA, 1955)

High School (Frederick Wiseman, USA, 1968)

Une Vie du Prof, (Hervé Chabalier, France, 1994)
Chabalier's film inspired
Le Plus beau métier du monde, starring Gerard Depardieu (Gérard Lauzier, France, 1996)

The Elementary School (Jan Sverák, Czechoslovakia, 1991)

Être et avoir (Nicolas Philibert, France, 2002)

Entre Les Murs will certainly expose you to a classroom you haven't experienced before.

The Missing Star, directed by Gianni Amelio, 103 minutes, 2006, Italy

 

An Italian engineer travels to China to track down a faulty furnace. The film is part documentary, revealing China,  a country under construction, facing immense problems as it enters the modern world.