On the Way to School Brazil, China, France, South Africa 2013 – 100min.

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On the Way to School

Valérie Lobsiger
Movie Rating: Valérie Lobsiger

Four children are happy to go to school, but the way there is long and filled with obstacles.

Compared with the dimensions of nature, they are tiny. But they take it on every day to get to school. In Kenya, Jackson (11) walks 15 km (in 2 hours) through the Savannah with his sister Salomé, each with a plastic jug of bottle, a shoulder bag and a stick, meager protection against the group of elephants they risk meeting every day. Every Monday morning, Zahira (12) takes the rocky paths of the High Atlas mountains (Morocco) with two other pupils to walk to their boarding school, which is four hours away. Carlito (11) rides 1 ½ hours on horseback across the plains and hills of Patagonia (Argentina), with his little sister Micaela riding pillion. Finally, in the Gulf of Bengal (India), Samuel (13), who is paraplegic, is pushed to school in his makeshift wheelchair by his two younger brothers – for 4 km (in 1 hours, 15 minutes) over sand that is more hindrance than road...

This documentary by French director Pascal Plisson (his feature debut, after many television segments) is a reminder that going to school is an opportunity that is often unappreciated. Not only do these children take great risks getting to school every day, they do so voluntarily and with a smile, because it's the only chance they have of one day realizing their dreams. Something for spoiled children to meditate on.

31.05.2021

4

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