Laurent Cantet's films are highly detailed, meticulously observed and they almost always take place in work situations.
His 2000 film, "Human Resources," for example, had been about a young, earnest manager at odds with his factory's labor force. Cantet's latest, "Entre les murs," (winner of the 2008 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival) also portrays the rift between inspired ideas and actual execution, and the personal risk involved in workplace idealism, this time set in a school.
It seems that Cantet's interference on the set was minimal. He let the force of his nonprofessional actors carry the story, partly because he knew the film needed it, and partly because of the supreme confidence he had in cowriter and lead actor Francois Begaudeau, who plays the class teacher.