Les petites victoires (2023)
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Directors
Cast
Julia Piaton, Michel Blanc, Lionel Abelanski, Marie Bunel
A village mayor and schoolteacher tries to save her small school while helping an illiterate villager return to the classroom.
The story
Alice Le Guennic is both mayor and schoolteacher in the small Breton village of Kerguen, where essential services have disappeared and residents regularly depend on her. Émile Menoux, a difficult man in his sixties, is illiterate and has recently lost the brother who helped him manage his affairs. Despite Alice’s objections, Émile returns to school and joins her one-room class. His blunt manner unsettles the usual routine, though he wins over the children. When a parent reports the situation to the school inspectorate, an inspector discovers that Alice’s class has only ten pupils, putting the village school’s future in doubt.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Alice Le Guennic (Julia Piaton) is both the mayor and the schoolteacher of the small village of Kerguen in Brittany. She works hard to preserve the village’s essential services, even though it no longer has a doctor, a bakery, or a café. Her constituents are constantly calling on her. The daughter of the village’s former mayor and doctor, she is determined to live up to her father’s example and devotes herself unfailingly to others. One of the villagers, Émile Menoux, is a difficult sixty-something. Émile is illiterate, and since his brother recently died, he has had no one to help him with administrative matters or answer his mail. Despite Alice’s objections, he goes back to school, joining the one-room class she teaches. His outspokenness thoroughly disrupts the routine of Alice’s small class, but he wins over his young classmates. One of the pupils’ parents reports the situation to the school inspectorate. The inspector finds that Alice’s class has only ten pupils: the little village school is now threatened with closure. Émile and Alice get to know each other better. Alice realizes that Émile’s illiteracy has constantly limited his choices in life, and that his brother Christian had withheld some of his letters, snuffing out a possible romance with Claudine, another village resident. Émile encourages Alice to think a little less about others and a little more about herself, and even to consider a romantic relationship. Alice is convinced that closing the school would mean the death of the village. She rallies the entire population to make the inspector believe that there are more pupils at her school than there really are. The ruse fails. Heavy-hearted, Alice takes her pupils to visit the school in a neighboring village, where they will go starting next school year. She realizes that her pupils are actually rather pleased at the prospect of attending a bigger, better-equipped school. Encouraged by Émile, Alice leaves her village to embark on a long bicycle trip. Before she sets off, all the villagers surprise her by thanking her and wishing her a safe journey.
Genres
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