À l'école de la loi
Sophie Lechevalier, Thierry Neuville
2000 - 56 min - Beta numérique - Couleur - France

The Assize Court, a civic play area...
A pretend trial before a real assize court. After the facts have been presented to them, a 3rd form class from a "sensitive" school imagines, during their French lessons, how this news item would take place, the life of the accused and the victim and witnesses.
A case is drawn up, based on which some of them invent the defence strategy, others the charges. Then the pupils learn to take on all the roles of the future trial : victim, accused, jurors, lawyers, witnesses, public prosecutor, plaintiff...
On the day of the hearing, the only professional present, a children’s judge, has put on robes. He sits down, surrounded by his teenage jurors. They all listen to the strategies that the pupils have invented. After a 30 minute consultation, the verdict is given. The assize court now resembles a real one.