Playground

This special limited edition slipcover (designed by Beth Morris) is limited to 500 units and is only available on our website and at select indie retailers. Absolutely no major retailers will be stocking them. Founded in 2002 as one of the first-ever subscription film services with its DVD-of-the-Month Film Club, Film Movement is now a North American distributor of award-winning independent and foreign films based in New York City. In 2015, Film Movement launched the reissue label Film Movement Classics featuring new restorations released theatrically as well as on home video, with an emphasis on films by auteur directors such as Eric Rohmer, Peter Greenaway and Takeshi Kitano. In this debut feature by writer-director Laura Wandel, the everyday reality of grade school is seen from a child's-eye-view as an obstacle course of degradation and abuse. Following 7-year-old Nora and her big brother Abel, we see Nora struggling to fit in before finding her place on the schoolyard. One day, she notices Abel being bullied by other kids, and though she rushes to protect him by warning their father, Abel forces her to remain silent, while he endures more humiliation and harassment by his peers. Transposing the gritty realism of such filmmakers as Jacques Audiard and the Dardennes Brothers to the inner world of kids, Wandel crafts an empathetic and visceral portrait of the cruelty of children, and the failure of adults to protect them. Shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best International Film. directed by: Laura Wandelstarring: Maya Vanderbeque, Günter Duret, Karim Leklou, Laura Verlinden2021 / 72 min / 1.85:1 / French DTS-HD MA 5.1, 2.0 Additional info: Region A Blu-ray Bonus Short Film: Les corps étrangers (Foreign Bodies) Directed by Laura Wandel Essay by film critic Rafa Sales Ross English subtitles