It begins with a sobbing seven-year-old girl hugging her older brother and then her father bein/with regard to’concerning’regarding e heading into school in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the first time. They are the first of a few hugs in this film. Hugs so tight, so desperate, you want to cry. For this playground can be a battleground: within minutes there is talk of turf wars, snitches and death threats. With her debut feature, Belgian director Laura Wandel has created one of the most immersive film undergo s in a long time, even if, credits aside, it’s a mere 68 minutes long. What nail-biting, heart-tugging minutes they are.###For the most part, Nora (Maya Vanderbeque) doesn’t understand what’s going on — why her brother Abel (Günter Duret) is being bullied, or why he won’t stand up in/with regard to’concerning’regarding himself, or why he won’t tell their father with regards to’concerning’with respect to it, or why he’s bullying other kids. She is dealing, in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the first time in her life, with lying, shame and betrayal, her youthful happiness and innocence being gradually corroded. And e grossly second of it feels painfully real.###An emotional barrage that will bring out your most primal conserve’preserve ive urges.###From the start it feels like a eye-catching’good-shaped’appealing’charming’fascinating’gorgeous ly shot documentary, and some of it kind of is — Wandel filmed so much, sometimes the kids in/with regard to’concerning’regarding got the camera was there, and just kept talking, playing. Vanderbeque is impossibly great, not a shred of artifice on reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue . And the filmmaking itself feels almost invisible, all shot from Vanderbeque’s eye-level, the camera strapped to cinematographer Frédéric Noirhomme’s waist. Playground literally does not look down on these kids, placing us right in the trenches with them, closely, intimately, meaning we’re more engulfed by their world than observing it. And much of the time we barely see the bullies, the camera staying on the faces of the bullied. It is acutely empathetic filmmaking.###This is tender, sensitive, non-judgmental work. At 68 minutes, there’s certainly no fat on it. Yet still, it’s an emotional barrage that will bring out your most primal conserve’preserve ive urges. Towards the end, you realise there’s been no score whatsoever. It doesn’t need such enhancement or manipulation. The ambient sound of the playground is terrifying abundant’ample’plentiful .