Xavier Palud

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There’s No Place Like Home: Class, Conflict and Violence in Ils (2006) Part 3: Violence and the Victim

Rebecca McCallum

There’s No Place Like Home: Class, Conflict and Violence in Ils (2006)

The most gratuitous violence we witness is at the hands of those positioned in the role of victim. Clem leaves Lucas to look for a way out and is chased by one of the assailants through an unfinished room containing a number of hanging plastic sheets, another metaphor for the social divisions and obstacles that exist between the couple and the youngsters. This culminates in her being pursued through an attic space; so far, no physical violence has been directed from the youngsters towards the couple.

“They wouldn’t play with us…”

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There’s No Place Like Home: Class, Conflict and Violence in Ils (2006) Part 2: The House As A Safe Place

Rebecca McCallum

There’s No Place Like Home: Class, Conflict and Violence in Ils (2006)

For Clem and Lucas, their house represents not only their success and status in society but it functions as a place where they can relax and feel assured that they are protected. The home they have chosen reveals a lot about how they perceive themselves and perhaps most importantly, how they’d like to be perceived by others. Originating from France, a country widely known for upholding its values and traditions, it’s telling that their house is the embodiment of these things. Grand and spacious, it reflects the opulence of eighteenth-century France with its vast corridors and period detail.

“This can’t be happening…”

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There’s No Place Like Home: Class, Conflict and Violence in Ils (2006) Part 1: The Outsider Moving In

Rebecca McCallum

There’s No Place Like Home: Class, Conflict and Violence in Ils (2006)

Stradling the sub genres of the new French extremity, home invasion and the controversial, oftentimes topical subject of the young and alienated working classes, Ils offers up a set of complex questions that are juxtaposed with its very simple and fast paced framework. We can all recall a time when we have been alone in our homes at night and felt under threat for some reason, even if that threat transpires to be nothing more than a creaking door or a loose floor board…

“You’ll never feel safe in your home again.”

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