Director: Thomas Lilti
A cash-strapped graduate student stumbles into a classroom instead of a lecture hall in this French drama-comedy, discovering that teaching teenagers is its own kind of doctorate.
What is A Real Bugs Life about?
Benjamin is deep into a PhD with no scholarship money coming in, and pressure from his parents pushes him to take a job as a substitute teacher at a middle school. He has no training and no classroom experience, and he quickly runs into a public education system that is stretched thin and short on resources. What keeps him from giving up is the small community of teachers around him — colleagues who take the job seriously despite everything working against them, and who slowly help Benjamin see the profession as more than a stopgap paycheck.
Cast & crew
Vincent Lacoste stars as Benjamin, supported by François Cluzet, Louise Bourgoin, Adèle Exarchopoulos, William Lebghil, Lucie Zhang, Bouli Lanners, and Léo Chalié as the school's staff and students. The ensemble leans into everyday classroom chaos rather than melodrama, giving the teachers' side of the story as much weight as Benjamin's.
Context & significance
Director Thomas Lilti, a former physician known for grounding his films in the lived reality of demanding professions, turns his focus from hospitals to classrooms with this French production. Running 111 minutes, the story sits closer to observational comedy than issue drama, using humor to look at the pressure teachers face inside an underfunded public school system.
Where & how to watch
A Real Bugs Life is available on K-Time with a free account login, with both Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles for viewers who want to follow it in Farsi. No account is required just to browse the page. K-Time's catalog is built for Persian-speaking audiences, with Farsi menus, search, and subtitle support throughout, making it easy to switch between the original French track and the dubbed version mid-watch.