Fracture

The liberal beliefs of Anna, a young Jewish teacher, are put to the test when she is hired to teach history in a low-income, racially diverse area of Paris. While many of her more seasoned colleagues take a cynical attitude about the future of their disaffected students, Anna is determined to nurture their potential. She’s especially interested in Lakdar, a gifted artist whose dreams of becoming a professional cartoonist are shattered when a medical error leaves him without the use of his drawing hand. Lakdar decides to take revenge on the Jewish doctor who treated him and racial tensions spiral out of control. Similar to Laurent Cantet’s The Class, the setting in Fracture serves as a microcosm of a divided French nation, where the ideal of a unified French culture contrasts with the reality of the country’s alienated immigrant citizens. —Toronto Jewish Film Festival