The Wild Child

François Truffaut

IndieLisboa 2020 •

France, Fiction, 1970, 83′

One of Truffaut’s cinema reflecting themes is the nature of education. One can see this in films like Les 400 Coups or Farenheit 451, or in this adaptation of the scientific memories of Jean Itard. He was a French doctor who found, in 1798, a 12-year-old boy – the “wild child” – who had been until then apart from civilization. Truffaut plays the doctor, the master, the father Itard in this long and difficult educational process.