The Way I Look at You: Five Stories of Driving School (1999)

Sub-Genres - Biography, Interpersonal Relationships, Race & Ethnicity, Social Issues  |   Run Time - 60 min.  |   Countries - Switzerland  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Todd Kristel

Documentary filmmaker Jean-Stephane Bron explores issues of multiculturalism and integration by looking at five pairs of driving school instructors and their pupils in Lausanne, Switzerland. A philosophical teacher helps his student cope with her failed attempts to pass the test; an Afghan refugee confides his feelings of isolation to a female instructor who has become a maternal figure to him; an apparently racist teacher maintains a complicated friendship with a student of Indian descent; a Portuguese woman takes lessons from the same teacher who instructed her recently deceased son; and a Moroccan who sidelines as a bench warmer teaches the Brazilian star of his Swiss soccer team. Bron interviews the teacher-pupil pairs both separately and together; much of the film is shot by stationary cameras mounted inside the cars and features conversations that occur during the lessons. Although the documentary shows some driving mishaps, its main emphasis is on the developing relationships between the instructors and instructees, as well as the attitudes that Swiss nationals and newly arrived immigrants have toward each other.

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Keywords

Brazilian [nationality], driving-school, immigrant, instructor, integration, isolation, multicultural, Portuguese [nationality], refugee, Switzerland