Oliver Yendell

Zero De Condit’, translated to ‘zero for conduct’, is. French film about a group of schoolboys that rebelled against their repressive teachers. Written, directed and edited by Jean Vigo, the film is said to be based on his childhood experiences.

The birth of the film and as Vigo became more well known was also the birth of the movement ‘poetic realism’. This is where the public were displayed as living their margins in society.

As the realism in the film corresponded to France’s flawed education system, the film was banned as soon as it was released as the French government were worried it would cause uproar and expose the corruption within the government. It was banned for 60 years

Jean Vigo is considered the father of poetic realism, as his films sparked a new wave of surrealist and poetic realistic cinema in France, resulting in the French government being exposed for corruption as state misconduct.