• France 2 is broadcasting this Wednesday, from 9:05 pm,

    The School of Life

    , a series produced by Nagui.

  • This series follows a history-geo teacher (played by Guillaume Labbé), who must overcome a personal drama.

  • The high school is an arena that allows each episode to address a societal problem through the course of a student.

The teachers' room is crowded on TV! After

Sam

 and then 

The Replacing

on TF1 and 

La Faute à Rousseau

on its antenna, France 2 is launching this Wednesday at 9:05 pm a new school series,

The School of Life

. In this fiction in six 52-minute episodes, Guillaume Labbé (seen recently in

I promise you

) plays Vincent Picard, a professor of history and geography, who, following a personal drama, invests himself body and soul in the life of his students.

“This series is about teachers, it touches me.

For me, they are the pillars of the world of tomorrow, ”says Nagui, who produced

The School of Life

, and with whom

20 Minutes

spoke during a virtual press conference organized by the channel.

This new fiction is adapted, "extremely freely", according to Anne Holmes, director of fiction for France TV, from

30 vies

, a soap opera from Quebec, which has 11 seasons and some 660 episodes, broadcast on a daily basis between 2011 and 2016. “We mainly took the character,” she sums up.

A teacher in mourning

Vincent Picard is a teacher appreciated by his students who is preparing to welcome his first child with his wife, Justine (Émilie Dequenne).

While the latter dies in childbirth, the young father returns in shock to high school the next day, without showing anything.

To prepare for the role, Guillaume Labbé read books and contacted an association that supports bereaved people.

“It allowed me to put the scenario to the test of reality and answer the questions I was asking myself,” he says.

How does the psyche respond to a violent event and can be in denial?

What are the different stages of grief?

"

Vincent Picard can count on the support of the staff of the school, and in particular of Léo, the teacher of PE (Bruno Sanches, all in sensitivity after having made us laugh in the pastilles

Catherine and Liliane

alongside Alex Lutz on Canal +).

“Between them there is a kind of fraternal friendship.

They balance each other out.

The chance that Vincent has is that Leo does not let go, ”he summarizes.

This painful journey is punctuated by

Beaux

, an original and melancholy title by Clara Luciani.

"I wanted the music to be beautiful in the series, it must be a vice with me," laughs the host of

Taratata

.

A teacher anchored in everyday life

It is especially in the classroom that Vincent Picard will rebuild himself.

Teaching will become "an escape from his personal drama", Guillaume Labbé analyzes.

“Teachers also grow up in contact with students,” underlines Nagui, himself the son of teachers.

Far from being yet another heir to Robin Williams in

The Circle of Missing Poets,

the hero of

The School of Life

is a realistic teacher, anchored in everyday life.

"I see it as a tribute to my parents who are no longer there, without obviously making it a personal matter," slips the producer.

It was essential for me not to betray what the work of teachers is today.

"

And Nagui continues: “Whatever the problems at home, you have to be present for the students, available outside of school hours.

It is this priesthood that we put forward.

"We did not want a superhero, but a support person who is there to reveal the problem and provide tools", relates producer Stéphanie Chartreux.

Students, parents and teachers from minorities

"We have several points of view, that of teachers, parents and adolescents," she continues.

The opportunity to show many characters from LGBT or ethnic minorities.

And, let's greet him, without that being a subject.

“We wanted to be a reflection of the contemporary world.

We did not want to have a sanitized class, a class like it does not exist ”, underlines Anne Holmes.

The young actors who make up the class (Louison Grimaldi, Camille Léon-Fucien, Hanane El Yousfi, Abdel Bendaher, etc.) give a great energy to the class scenes.

“I was overwhelmed by the quality of play of this generation,” says Nagui.

In the role of parents, were recruited many guests such as Déborah François, François Berléand, Marc Lavoine or Florence Pernel.

Today's societal problems

Classically for the genre, high school is an arena that allows each episode to address a societal problem through the course of a student.

"We are in a school, but what is important is not so much the mysteries of the school, the homework, the programs, but rather the way in which human beings help each other, support each other and grow together", Nagui believes.

“We chose a history-geo teacher because it allowed the authors to create bridges between the courses and the societal subjects that we wanted to tackle,” says the director of the collection Marc Michaud.

From the influential high school student who earns more than her teachers through incest, harassment or extreme right-wing radicalization, "the most important was the accuracy, that it be as close as possible to what these teens can experience and their parents, ”emphasizes Stéphanie Chartreux.

The message of the series?

“It is often through dialogue that we manage to find solutions,” notes Marc Michaud.

“Our society is built thanks to our teachers and the values ​​they pass on to us,” adds Nagui, who wants to explore lots of new themes in season 2. “We are thinking about what to do next.

Each season, we will highlight a new teacher with a new class of students to show the plurality of the profession, ”concludes her collaborator Stéphanie Chartreux.

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