A teacher seated next to me at a screening of “The Class” asked what I thought of the buzz film as the credits rolled.

“Amazing,” I said.

“Really?” she asked incredulously. And that began a dialogue that ended at my car when a friend of this teacher gave the film a two thumbs down signal as she drove away.

I related to the parent whose son went through the appeal process in the film and the teacher related to the teacher faced with unruly students. But there was something more at play than personal feelings.

“The Class” is another case of a director stretching the envelope of story-telling to get noticed at a festival, where auteurs have always gone to be recognized as distinctive.

The French film starts slowly in documentary style to disguise the fact that someone is telling a story. The drama creeps up until you realize you know these characters and really care about them.

“Tulpan,” “Three Monkeys” and “The Baader Meinhof Complex” also draw you in subtly through vivid, extremely realistic images. See how Maggie Downs found herself eventually moved by “Cherry Blossoms” on our film festival blog at mydesert.com.

“Gomorrah” is another hyped film with a non-narrative style, but it left me somewhat disappointed. The storytelling style is distinctive, but the scrolled message that the mob is involved in a lot of legit businesses seemed a weak attempt at “relevance.”

Good festival films offer a portal to the world in a distinctive style, but you want to see something through that portal that you never expected.