« School isn’t for everyone. » In a scene from Château Rouge, this phrase, casually spoken by a student at Georges Clémenceau Middle School in Paris’s Goutte d’Or neighborhood, cuts straight to the heart. Public school may be, in principle, a pillar of equality, but it is already in adolescence that it can instill in young minds a sense of loneliness and exclusion. How can one not be moved?

The fruit of remarkable observational work, in the purest tradition of cinéma vérité, Château Rouge—discovered within that treasure chest that is ACID, Cannes’ parallel selection—is one of those films that, beneath its apparent simplicity, in fact brims with reflection, nuance, and richness.

As the students face a decisive year in which they must choose their educational paths, they also confront the limits of their dreams and the harsh determinism of life in a disadvantaged neighborhood—yet in their smiles they carry a striking faith in the future. With extraordinary sensitivity, refusing any judgment or simplification, filmmaker Hélène Milano delivers a work as immersive as it is moving, staying as close as possible to these young people and their teachers, caught in the heart of a system that offers them so few options.


Helen Faradji
Director of Programming
Quebec City Film Festival