The Mulberry Bush school in Oxford caters for students aged 8-12 who need to be removed from regular schooling due to their harmful and unacceptable classroom behavior. This, as Kim Longinotto's documentary Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go carefully and tastefully reveals, is due to significant traumas in the lives of these young subjects. Longinotto has taken an observational approach to the material similar to Nicolas Philibert's 2002 film, Etre et Avoir, but unlike that film, the students are not charming. Philibert's documentary brings a one-teacher school to the screen, here in Longinotto's film, the staff:student ratio is 104:40 and it's no wonder; the teachers are physically abused, spat on, sworn at, but they stay working there. To its detriment, the majority of scenes take place in the classroom. It would have been beneficial to learn more about why the teachers and staff are at this particular school - how did they arrive there? Why not another school? At times, while engrossing and fascinating, her film becomes repetitive and had she moved away from the classroom or even included a girl in the mix (young girls have a very different educational experience to that of boys) it might have felt more complete and significant. It lacked a sense of the bigger picture and an extra twenty minutes of diversity would have been appreciated. Despite this flaw, for the most part it is a worthy piece. The arcs of the selected students are well shaped and many moments, while very sad, are quite moving.
7.5 on the DaveScale.
(dir. Kim Longinotto, UK, 100 mins)
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