Playground

DVD Features

Bonus Short Film
Les corps étrangers (Foreign Bodies)
Directed by Laura Wandel
Belgium
French with English subtitles
15 minutes

A war photographer who lost a leg and his physical therapist help each other see their respective worlds in a new light.

Discs: 1

• Highest Rating
  "Critic's Pick! [A] perfect hour and 12 minutes....a knockout, as flawlessly constructed as it is harrowing. A work of striking integrity and force, Wandel is... telling a story that in its piercing, sensitive detail and life-shaping arc is as familiar as yours and mine."
  Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
• Highest Rating
  "A must-see drama about school bullying. A sharply chiseled, wrenchingly observed first feature written and directed by Laura Wandel.... Vanderbeque gives what may be the most fully formed child performance in recent memory. "
  Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
• Highest Rating
  "A gut-punch of a film that is not so much a portrait of schoolyard bullying as it is a sensory immersion straight into the heart of children abusing other children physically and emotionally, Playground is a sit-up-and-take-notice blend of outstandingly natural performances enhanced by spot-on cinematic choices. Tough subject matter sensitively handled in this Cannes Un Certain Regard premiere distinguishes Belgian newcomer Laura Wandel as as a talent to watch."
  Lisa Nesselson, Screen Daily
• Highest Rating
  "Director Laura Wandel’s début feature Playground (Une Monde, 2021), is a deeply unsettling story that offers no resolution. A visceral observation of bullying shot at the eye level of a seven-year-old, the film reminds us that the dark underbelly of educational idealism is a traumatic experience."
  Paul Risker, PopMatters
• Highest Rating
  "With her stunning debut film Playground, Belgian newcomer Laura Wandel unlocks our memories through film. Playground is truly stunning in both its visual power and auditory submergence. Every frame, unlocking the vault of the school memories we keep firmly shut in our subconscious mind. This, in turn, creates an immersive, at times unnerving, and compelling slice of cinema. "
  Neil Baker, Cinerama Film Online
• Highest Rating
  "Maya Vanderbeque is an incredible young actress."
  Elena Morgan, Jumpcut Online
• Highest Rating
  "Filmed from a child’s perspective, Laura Wandel’s first feature is a moving, subtle yet incisive tale which impresses for its intense depiction of bullying at school"
  Fabien Lemercier, Cineuropa
• Highest Rating
  "The film’s originality stems from its creative use of mix-and-match, taking a schoolyard tale and treating it with same hard-nosed intensity as Audiard’s prison thriller and a here-and-now visual immediacy more common to a war film. "
  Ben Croll, The Wrap
• Highest Rating
  "Playground is practically an exercise in the use of off-camera space, and a masterful and refreshingly consistent one at that."
  Diego Semerene, Slant
• Highest Rating
  "It's one of the year's boldest and best directorial debuts, in addition to being one of the most incisive films about how children experience bullying yet made."
  Alistair Ryder, View of the Arts
• Highest Rating
  "Playground is a poignant portrait of the dynamics of fitting in and finding one’s place."
  Selina Sondermann, The Upcoming
• Highest Rating
  "A brilliant debut feature.... Playground’s brilliance is in its simplicity and intimacy. As the tension mounts... Playground cements itself as one of the best films about early childhood I’ve seen."
  Danielle Measor, WeTalkFilm
• Highest Rating
  "Wandel’s movie is immersive and bruising, full of empathy for its young characters, and unrelenting in its depiction of the challenges they face."
  Chloe Walker, Paste Magazine
• Highest Rating
  "Wandel’s film burrows right into the mind of its characters, leaving you gasping for air."
  Ben Flanagan, In Review Online
• Highest Rating
  "Laura Wandel’s refreshingly lean directorial debut captures the casual cruelty of youth free of sentimental embellishments, aided by a heartbreaking performance from young lead Maya Vanderbeque."
  Shaun Munro, Flickering Myth
• Highest Rating
  "Wandel’s immersive, impressive debut is rigorous in its resolute focus on one little girl fighting a lonely, frightened battle for her future selfhood, in which what hangs in the balance is nothing less than the shape and measure of her developing soul. But out of focus, amid the background clamor, hover even larger, stranger and more fundamental questions, like how come school is the way it is, and why do we subject our children to it?"
  Jessica Kiang, Variety
• Highest Rating
  "Belgian director Laura Wandel’s jarring debut feature plunges headlong into the world of school-aged children and observes their dynamics with chilling precision. It generously studies its subjects — children, bullying, adults confronting the implications of the latter — and extracts haunting conclusions about the Darwinian nature of ostensibly idyllic settings."
  Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter
• Highest Rating
  "A gripping psychological drama... Vanderbeque's performance is transfixing."
  Jessica Kiang, Variety
• Highest Rating
  "A remarkable examination of childhood, social belonging, and family ties—with implications outside of the school playground. Vanderbeque is never anything but absolutely convincing. Indeed, the film rests squarely on her shoulders. "
  Oris Aigbokhaevbolo, The Verdict
• Highest Rating
  "Playground is bleak, bleak stuff. It’s also electrifying. As Nora, Vanderbeque is quite stunning from the film’s first heartbreaking frame to its last. The moral and emotional trap Nora finds herself in feels organic, perhaps because many of us will recognize it from our own lives. Playground is a tough watch, but it’s also an essential one."
  Bilge Ebiri, Vulture
• Highest Rating
  "An arresting, eye-opening look at how violence begins at an early age, and how we can learn to be bystanders, or have the strength to speak out."
  Susannah Gruder, IndieWire