FAQ

The Class is based on the 2006 novel Entre les Murs (Between the Walls) by French writer François Bégaudeau. Bégaudeau, along with screenwriters Robin Campillo and Larent Cantet, adapted the novel for the screen. The French title comes from a line in the song Senegal Fast Food by Amadou and Miriam. The line goes: "Entre les murs se faufiler dans l'ascenseur...ascenseur pour le ghetto" [Between the walls (they're) slipping into the elevator...elevator to the ghetto].

More or less, since the novel is a semi-autobiographical account of Bégaudeau's experiences as a literature teacher in an inner city middle school in Paris, and François Bégaudeau stars as himself.

The original word in French was petasse, which was translated into the American English slang word skank. Both petasse and skank can best be translated to mean "slut".