Playground (2021)

This is one of those films that has you shouting at the screen! “Nora” (Maya Vanderbeque) intervenes when her older brother “Abel” (Günter Duret) is routinely getting his hair washed in a toilet bowl, but the results of her actions merely serve to alienate her from her brother whilst having fairly profound effects on both their behaviour at school and to each other, of of that of their friends to them. It’s a cycle of toxicity that really proves the rule about no good deed going unpunished. Parents get involved, teachers get involved - but is anything going to actually get any better? Both of the leading kids deliver potently here and she, especially, exudes an emotionally charged characterisation of a girl determined to stick up for her elder sibling regardless of the impact that may have on both of them. On a broader note, it shines a bright light on the noxious nature of bullying and, in this case, of the ineffectiveness of the system when trying to address these problems in people quite possibly too young to fully appreciate the ramifications and/or causes of their actions. Personally, I always think that if someone has to make you say sorry then it’s completely meaningless and the school ought simply to call the police, but that’s just one of the reactions this film might evoke from those with or without (me) children. The dialogue is really quite natural, as if they were ad-libbing and in some ways it reminded me of “Close” (2022). It’s quite an exasperating film and maybe don’t watch with anything handy you could throw at the screen.