Broken

About The Film

The idealism of a young Jewish schoolteacher is tested when she is hired to work in a low-income, largely Arab immigrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Paris. While many of her more seasoned colleagues take a cynical attitude toward their disenfranchised students, liberal-minded Anna (Anaïs Demoustier) is determined to nurture their potential. She takes a special interest in Lakdar (Samy Seghir), a gifted artist whose dreams are shattered when a medical mistake leaves him without the use of his drawing hand. When Lakdar sets in motion a misguided revenge plot against the Jewish doctor who treated him, racial tensions spiral out of control. BROKEN serves as a microcosm of a divided nation, where the ideal of a unified French culture contrasts with the reality of resurging anti-Semitism and an alienated immigrant class.