The Class

In a secondary school class in Estonia, Joosep is humiliated constantly and nobody intervenes; the teachers do not see it and the families do not hear it. One of the popular boys, Kaspar, steps in one day, and from that moment he becomes a target too. The two grow more isolated and the isolation becomes a plan. Ilmar Raag presents bullying not as an accident or the work of a few bad children but as an order the class maintains collectively. The film counts the teachers' silence as part of the violence. Its ending was argued over in Estonia for a long time and the film was shown in schools there. It is among the best-known contemporary productions from the country. Who it is for: viewers who like Northern European youth drama and hard films about bullying. Who it is not for: anyone who would rather not meet an ending involving gun violence unprepared.