Back to basics for Carine May and Hakim Zouhani, the two directors of The Court of Miracles which has just hit the screens. It was in Aubervilliers, in the 93, that these children of the 70s spent all their schooling.
At school, everyone rubbed shoulders, says Hakim Zouhani, “he there were blacks, Arabs, Italians and Vietnamese”. For Carine May, memories also come back to her old high school. The filmmaker remembers having really experienced social diversity.
There were sons of workers, sons of doctors. It was an amazing mix! We have known her. It no longer exists in Aubervilliers as in so many other towns in France.
The issue of diversity is at the heart of the film The court of miracles, who is on the side of the teachers. A bias for Carine May who, before becoming a director, was a teacher and Hakim Zouhani an educator.
This social comedy takes place in the Jacques Prévert school in Aubervilliers, nestled at the foot of the city, Porte de la Villette. It tells the story of a primary school threatened by the arrival near a “bobo-ecolo” establishment. brand new. The team of teachers, who do not know each other, will do everything to retain their students and make the premises of the old school more attractive. The idea comes to them to create the very first suburban green school, right in the middle of the concrete. The Court of Miracles is also glaringly true when the lack of teachers is evoked with this hilarious sequence of job dating to recruit them. The aim of this pretty, hopeful film is not just to make people laugh. It also makes you think about the functioning of public schools in France.
Rachida Brakni takes on the costume of the headmistress of the school who deploys mad energy to fight against school segregation. She also experienced social mixing at school. Today, she is furious to see her disappear. A role that is close to her heart, because for this actress of Algerian origin, a bookworm when she was a child, school is “thehe place where we build ourselves is the backbone of a nation”.
Rachida Brakni is accompanied by young actors like Mourad Boudaoud who plays the role of a teacher. He too grew up and studied in Pantin, in the Courtillères district, in the Paris suburbs. This film is therefore a great opportunity to pay tribute to his teachers who opened up the field of possibilities to him.
The Court of Miraclesby Carine May and Hakim Zouhani, currently in theaters.