The last time I went, I was recognised everywhere - it is a big thing for them to see a Turkish success at Cannes. His class of 14- to 15-year-old kids in the film is made up of non-professionals, and their unobtrusively superb and authentic classroom scenes have evidently been devised through improvisation. That crude insult ignites a violent row, which becomes toxic when François neglects to mention the "skanks" provocation in his official report. As the teacher at a tough, racially mixed, inner-city school in Paris, Marin ( François Bégaudeau), neither weary cynic nor wide-eyed idealist, is a decent, determined realist. One of the most valuable and relevant life lessons that my University has taught me is the purpose of education itself.

Then Laurent would say something like 'I want you to be more attentive', so I would do that and he would say 'Yes, like that, like what you just did'. I think it must be difficult to teach me because I like to wind people up, but I'm a lot calmer now since the film.

Though we certainly have moments when Marin delves into a moral tangent, I cannot say that he emerges as the unquestioned hero in the way that protagonists in other films do. In this case, though, "improvised" doesn't equal loads of swearing like in Judd Apatow's body of work (even if some of the lingo used by the kids is on the stronger side), but things people say and think when they're going through that delicate period of their life. The film has received critical acclaim, achieving a 95% rating at Rotten Tomatoes out of 161 reviews counted, and an average rating of 8.

Actually, you didn't realise what you were doing - it was like a game," adds Louise Grinberg, 15, who appears in the movie under her own name, playing an intelligent yet shy member of the class.This one remark sends a shockwave through the movie; resulting in disciplinary action against one of Marin's students, and much tongue-tied babbling from the teacher as he tries to talk himself out of the hole he has dug for himself. Not surprisingly, when word of a cinematic adaptation came out, Bégaudeau wanted to be involved, contributing to the screenplay and taking on the lead role, virtually playing himself.

Overall, The Class is a remarkable film that proves beyond a doubt that teaching is the hardest job on the planet. He eventually finds himself facing his angry class and trying to convince them that the word has a much more innocent connotation than they believe, and this scene takes place not in Marin's home turf of the classroom, but outside in the schoolyard; the balance of power has shifted. But things turn very sour when two girls are allowed to sit in on a staff discussion on standards and behaviour and gleefully report some disobliging remarks back to Souleymane, who is deeply angry and hurt after his class-project triumph, with no vocabulary to express his sense of betrayal. Here, we have the true testimony of a person that realizes the weight of his social role as an educator (and, therefore, as a transmitter of values) and attempts to create awareness of such relevant worldwide issue through a novel and now a film. His sole moment of privacy is glimpsed at the very beginning of the film: having a coffee before gearing himself up for the fray.Well, not really: there's a degree of fiction in his character, at least in the fact that his last name is Marin. The film raises many questions that have to do with teaching but also with the school system and how it brings to the fore social issues such as immigration, racism and antisemitism. Souleymane cheekily tells François that he has heard the teacher "likes men" - and insolently says that this is not his own accusation, just something he has heard.