French docudrama wins top honors at Cannes
May 25, 2008
CANNES, France - The French film “The Class,” a frank tale about classroom life using real students and teachers at a junior high school, won top honors Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival.
Directed by Laurent Cantet, “The Class” (“Entre les Murs”) was the first French film to win the main prize, the Palme d’Or, at Cannes since “Under Satan’s Sun” in 1987. The docudrama was shot in a raw, improvisational style to chronicle the drama that unfolds over one school year.
The win was a unanimous decision among the nine-member Cannes jury, said Sean Penn, who headed the panel.