Skirt Day
| La Journée de la jupe | |
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Film poster
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| Directed by | Jean-Paul Lilienfeld |
| Produced by | Ariel Askénazi Bénédicte Lesage |
| Written by | Jean-Paul Lilienfeld |
| Starring |
Isabelle Adjani Denis Podalydès Jackie Berroyer |
| Music by | Kohann |
| Cinematography | Pascal Rabaud |
| Edited by | Aurique Delannoy |
| Distributed by | Rézo Films |
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Release date
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Running time
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88 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Budget | $1.5 million |
| Box office | $1,997,721 |
La Journée de la jupe is a 2008 French television film, directed by Jean-Paul Lilienfeld and starring Isabelle Adjani as a high school teacher.
A key point of the plot of the movie happened in real life: a request was sent to the French Minister of Education to propose a Skirt Day.
Sonia Bergerac (Adjani), who favours wearing a skirt, teaches French literature at a middle school in a poor immigrant-dominated neighborhood. She increasingly resents the daily burden of racist and sexist abuse from her violent unmotivated students, even more so since the departure of her husband. Her wearing of a skirt is considered sensitive given the school's large Muslim population, many of whom consider such clothing immodest.
During the rehearsal of a theatre play with one of her classes, she finds a gun in a student's bag. She struggles to grab the gun, and a shot is fired accidentally that injures the student's leg. Totally overwhelmed, she loses control and takes her class hostage, opportunistically creating a proper — although biased — teaching environment.
While school, police and political authorities try to figure out what is going on and how to react, Sonia forces the students to see things her way and ultimately shows them the contradictions in their own lives. Most of them revolt against the macho bullies who abuse her and go over to her side.
When the police ask what conditions she sets for releasing the class, she asks that the government declare a Skirt Day in schools each year, when females can appear in skirts. She also asks for journalists who will publicise her case in the media. The police then get her father to speak to her and, when he switches to Arabic from French, the students realise that, like many of them, Sonia is also of North African origin.
When the journalists arrive, they are, in fact, policemen who fatally shoot her. At her funeral, the girl students all wear skirts.
The movie was screened at the première of Berlin International film festival 2009, and was first broadcast on European culture TV channel Arte on March 20, 2009 before being released in cinemas on March 25, 2009. Lilienfeld said that the lack of funding prevented a typical theatre release and prompted a prior broadcast on TV. The inaugural release covered 50 cinemas, but this number grew because of growing public interest.
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Wikipedia