L'École buissonnière: what age is it for?
Official US rating: PG-13. In France, zinema would say 10.
Alone, or with you
The official US rating is PG-13, and we never go below it. Alone from 13, and not before, even with an adult.
What it's about
Paris 1930. Paul has only ever had one and the same horizon: the high walls of the orphanage, an austere building in the Parisian working class suburbs. Entrusted to a joyful country woman, Célestine, and her husband, Borel, the rather stiff gamekeeper of a vast estate in Sologne, the city child, recalcitrant and stubborn, arrives in a mysterious and disturbing world, that of a sovereign and wild region. The huge forest, misty ponds, heaths, and fields all belong to the Count de la Fresnaye, an elderly taciturn man who lives alone in his manor.
Why 13
- The official rating, firstRated PG-13 in the US (parents strongly cautioned, some material may be inappropriate for children under 13). zinema never goes below the country's rating: it explains it.rule
- Salty language, more than you'd expectFor a film that looks like a gentle country tale, the grown-ups swear fairly often, about a dozen times across the two hours, including a few strong words in the first half hour. Nothing is aimed at hurting anyone, it is the rough talk of gamekeepers and poachers, but young ears do pick it up and repeat it.shown
- Death, talked about all alongDeath runs through the whole story: a mother, a family secret, hunted animals. It comes back some twenty times in conversation and is never shown, but the weight of loss is the engine of the film, and the boy carries it from the first minutes.shown
- Guns, traps and a manhuntThe gamekeeper chases the poacher without letup. Guns and knives are handled on screen, shots ring out in the woods, and there are scuffles between men. It stays at the level of a chase, not a bloodbath, and one horse fall near the end leaves no visible injury.shown
- Long nights in the forestA quarter of the film plays out in near darkness: misty ponds, night poaching, a fire, a child alone among the trees. The sound design uses sudden bangs, animal growls and cries after long silences, which can make a small viewer jump even though nothing frightening is really there.shown
- Wine and cigarettes, 1930 styleBottles on the table, glasses shared, cigarettes rolled and smoked: it is the everyday of French country life between the wars, shown without comment and without glamour. Worth a word if your child is at the age of noticing.shown
What the movie brings
- A warm look at how a lonely child finds people who choose him, and a place that becomes his.
- A real education in the outdoors: reading tracks, respecting animals, understanding what poaching means and why the law and the heart can disagree.
- A picture of 1930s France, orphanages, estates and working families, that opens plenty of questions.
Watching it together
Before you start, tell your child that Paul grew up in an orphanage and knows nothing about his parents, so the mystery is really his own story.
at 13 and up
Borel hunts the poacher and the Count lets him be. Who do you think is right, and why?
See the facts
A zinema reading from September 8, 2026 · the whole movie, watched in full · the age by zinema's rules for the US and France, and a human reading · report an error · how this guide is made