The Class
Ilmar Raag - Estonia
By Cormac O'Síocháin
This Estonian production manages to be of a particularly contemporary feel in its cinematography and composition, yet without the self-conscious shitty-flavoured “art” flair which many others of its like share. A story which echoes the growing epidemic of school shootings over the past decade, this film deals with its subject matter in a grimly fascinating and altogether convincing manner. As such, it avoids dumb sensationalism and focuses on how such tragedies may very well happen -through human cruelty, terrifying herd-like conformity, the capacity for teenagers and children to wreak the most devastating horror upon one another, and the inconceivably shocking backlash which such escalations inevitably provoke. Though set in Estonia, this could be anywhere in Northern Europe; writer/director Ilmar Raag makes a brave choice by refusing to cast the protagonists in overtly freakish (and thus easily dismissed) roles, instead focussing on power relations and the clash of egos. This film is much better than the subject matter would lead one to believe possible.
