Writer: Jess O’Kane
Director: Jonatan Etzler
Wouldn’t life be so much easier of all the bad apples could be rounded up, allowing the rest of society to flourish? The premise of Jess O’Kane’s new dark comedy psychodrama directed by Jonatan Etzler and starring Saoirse Ronan show that concept is far too simplistic in its interpretation of the shades of grey in human nature. Screening at the London Film Festival 2025, the idea is amusingly applied to a primary school where a young teacher cannot be the classroom leader she hopes because of one disruptive pupil. Hardly sentimental about the sanctity of childhood, Bad Apples takes its characters to some difficult places when pushed to extremes all in pursuit of a fairy tale ending for everyone else.
Newly arrived in the area, Maria cannot control Danny, a violent and disobedient boy who derails every lesson to the detriment of other students. When a late night encounter at Maria’s home results in Danny becoming incarcerated, Maria spends the following weeks on a knife edge as she tries to avoid discovery. But life in class improves and the school begins to flourish in Danny absence so Maria keeps going, until someone unexpected notices what she’s been up to.
O’Kane and Etzler’s film maintains its tone very nicely throughout the film, mixing black comedy with prolonged psychodrama as the protagonist’s every fear and panic is writ large on the screen. The film takes us nicely from her worry that her job may be on the line when she is unable to control her charges to a much more sinister action that takes her by surprise. In creating Maria, this sweet Miss Honey-like gentle woman conceals a surprising steel that adds to the dramas as Maria cannot quite believe herself.
The unfolding scenario is well managed and having embraced the initial premise of confining a child, new moments of jeopardy present themselves, asking what ‘bad’ children actually look like, certainly as a quite different target enters the picture and starts to make things difficult for Maria in a slightly awkward way, which, again she is unable to reveal. As the denouement approaches at a big parent’s evening, Etzler ensures multiple outcomes remain in play, asking whether a child or teacher is most likely to be believed and the creative team control the quickly changing perspective well.
As Maria, Ronan makes much of the teacher’s wide-eyed innocence and her failure to manage the behaviour of the class. As the story plays out, this takes on different dimensions when her authority is challenged in new ways so this blurring of boundaries and inability to impose control contrast nicely in Ronan’s performance with a refusal to backdown once set on her path. There is fine support from Eddie Waller as Danny who is a little cartoony at first but settles into a complex relationship with his captor who is compliant and always on the edge of defiance. Nia Brown as Pauline, a wannabe teacher’s pet, also becomes increasingly sinister as her adoration grows and then sours.
Bad Apples, part of London Film Festival’s Official Competition strand, is a spikey film, full of wry wit and unexpected directions that make you wonder what you might do in Maria’s situation if it meant creating harmony for everyone else. This cider is definitely not rosy.
Bad Apples is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2025 from 8-19 October.
