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DERVILA COOKE well at school if given the chance. He grows in self-confidence and the ability to vocalize his thoughts in French with the help of the committed teacher, the eponymous Québécoise, Madame Lise. His progress is at risk of being hampered by the decision of his parents to take him to their country for extended periods during the school year. A different case is the little Black girl who is highly gifted academically, but who gets bored easily and is therefore vulnerable to not achieving her potential (and perhaps dropping out at some point, particularly if her giftedness is not recognized and encouraged in her home environment). As with La Génération 101, and like Philippe Falardeau’s 2011 film, Monsieur Lazhar, this Québec documentary from almost the same date emphasizes the enormous impact of good teachers on children’s lives in noting their needs, building their self-confidence and drawing out their potential." A stellar teacher is also in focus in La Cour de Babel by French director Bertuccelli. As in Godbout’s film, it focuses on a classe d'accueil, in this case in the tenth district in Paris, and their committed teacher Brigitte Servoni, of whom the Nouvel Observateur made a striking written portrait in 2014.” Some of the children and teenagers it focuses on are slightly younger than those in Godbout’s film, aged between 11 and 15. Servoni makes a strong effort to make the children feel included, and to encourage them to bring their cultural and linguistic heritage into the classroom (and onto the blackboard), along with their individual talents, for example singing or playing an instrument. The children seem at ease and validated, and are willing to attempt to express themselves and to endorse each other’s abilities. Servoni must nonetheless attempt to negotiate a multitude of vulnerabilities the children have, without allowing these difficulties to dominate the class. A clever girl who dreams of being a doctor must move from the school and leave behind the excellent support she is being given there, as her parents’ social and economic circumstances mean they must move to an apartment far away. Generous living spaces in the home country have been traded for cramped accommodation and inadequate homework facilities in small apartments in Paris. As with Godbout’s film, contexts of war, familial separation and political persecution are also part of some of the children’s backgrounds. We also see the vulnerabilities of the parents, some of whom cannot speak French and who rely on their children as mediators and translators in parentteacher discussion. The classes d'accueil sequences of Godbout's film need to be considered in this light too, as similar circumstances are present in the Québec immigrant classroom. 18 Philippe Falardeau, Monsieur Lazhar, Montreal, Les films Séville, 2011. © Marie-Elisabeth Rouchy, La Cour de Babel: l’enseignante sans laquelle le documentaire naurait pas été possible, Le Nouvel Observateur, 23 October 2014, https://www.nouvelobs.com/cinema/20140312.CIN0630/la-cour-de-babel-l-enseignantesans-laquelle-le-documentaire-n-aurait-pas-ete-possible.html (accessed 22 April 2020). + 184 +
