Watching Laurent Cantet's The Class is a sobering experience for most people. For Andrew Leung Chun-chung, the film's portrayal of a beleaguered high school teacher struggling to control his students is all too familiar.
After working for nine years as a teacher in a girls' school in Kwun Tong, having to deal with potentially difficult moments in classrooms has become almost second nature for him.
'This is a very honest film,' he says, as he emerges from a test screening of the award-winning French film organised by Hong Kong distributors for a group of local teachers.
'[What happened in the film] just reminds me of how my students challenge me all the time.
'It's understandable when students let out their emotions - maybe she feels lonely, lost or distracted and needs advice, you'll never know. The French teacher in the film [played by former real-life teacher Francois Begaudeau] took things too seriously,' Leung says.
Set in a multicultural school in a working-class neighbourhood in Paris, Begaudeau's character - also called Francois - is seen having to manage a class (below) of rowdy, sharp-tongued students from African, Asian and Arab families.