Mix the anarchic impulse of Lindsay Anderson’s If with Jean Vigo’s Zero de Conduite and you have Jean-Jacques Zilbermann’s Bad Spelling, an excellent example in a proud tradition of cinema’s support of youthful rebellion. The protagonist played by Damien Jouillerot is 15 but looks 13. His father and mother (Carole Bouquet and Olivier Gourmet) are, respectively, the principal and head of studies at a boarding school.

As one of the school’s day students, Daniel was pretty much able to escape their notice, but now his father has decided that it would be good for his son to join the other students in the dormitory. Soon he realises there’s only one course of action: to actually lead the revolt himself against the school authorities.