French film 'Entre les murs' and the stereotype blacks

I've watched the trailer of the award winning (Cannes) flick 'Entre les murs' (The Class). It's a story about a French language teacher in a multicultural inner city high school classroom in Paris. One of the action parts of the film is a young black kid who explodes in a class room, because he's being touched. But that boy looks so much like the stereotype black kid at risk in a ghetto school in the US. I've seen these scenes before.

The critics claim this is not your standard classic white-hero-on-a-black-school-film, but it’s more. It has to do with inspirational teaching.

I wonder why the main characters in the film are black and white and not ‘Magrebs’, wich would be more in line with the French reality. Maybe it’s because the multicultural line-up is more in line with US. That's why France submited the film for a nomination for an Oscar in the Best foreign language film category.

Most interesting detail. The film is based on the book of writer and teacher François Bégaudeau. He plays himself the film.

Read: Entre les murs - French winner at Cannes finally hits the big screen