The Kindergarten Teacher is a very human film. Clearly situated in Israel, the film’s message will resonate in European countries, where feeling uneasy about consumerism and pining for a life in which poetry and art that can nourish more than the soul is the dream of many a rat-race marathonist. Interesting, moving and thought-provoking.
Nira (strong performance by Sarit Larry) is an experienced Kindergarten teacher, the wife of a civil servant (Lior Raz), embattled in minor office politics, and the mother of a teenage son just about to complete his compulsory army service. She is competent in all those roles, but her heart really is in her Kindergarten.
One of the children she looks after is Yoav (beatifully portrayed by 5-year-old Avi Shnaidman). When Nira discovers that he has a talent for spontaneously inventing poetry in trancelike bursts, she decides to dedicate herself, beyond the call of duty, to allowing the boy’s talent to develop. This is not easy, as Yoav’s family circumstances are all except favourable to a future career as a poet. His mother left Yoav and his father to take up with a lover in America; Yoav’s father Amnon (Yehezkel Lazarov) is a successful owner of a Michelin- starred-restaurant, whose brother (Dan Toren) is a minor and relatively penniless poet. So in his view, to ensure his son’s happiness and financial well being, Yoav’s poetical side mustn’t be encouraged. As Yoav is also a very normal and quite social young lad when he doesn’t have one of his poetical trances, his father may indeed have a point.
Yoav’s nanny Miri (spiky performance by the multi talented Ester Rada) does her job quite well, but without any overenthusiasm. She is not much interested in what’s right or wrong for the child-poet in her charge. But she knows what’s good for her, and uses little Yoav’s poems as audition texts to further her acting career.
Nadav Lapid’s script and his characters worked for me. Nira’s development, as she lives out a mid-life crisis by giving full rein to her romantic ideas in just the area of her life where it’s arguable that she should act professionally at all times may truly annoy some viewers. Other more poetically inclined viewer's hearts may go out to her.
Fortunately, Lapid deploys a significant dose of irony and humour in the way he portrays how society around her reacts to what Nira has to reveal about her prodigy’s talents. Nira, while clearly obsessed, is clever and practical about checking out Yoav’s talents and seeking to protect the child.
As a director, Nadav Lapid has employed interesting means of using the camera perspective to give his audience more insight into what is going on; and it works.
The Kindergarten Teacher is a very human film, mainly about Nira’s personal journey. Not far below the surface, it is also about the role and goal of education in society and politics. Clearly situated in Israel, the film’s message will resonate in France and other European countries, where feeling uneasy about consumerism and pining for a life in which poetry and art that can nourish more than the soul is the dream of many a rat-race marathonist.
Nira (strong performance by Sarit Larry) is an experienced Kindergarten teacher, the wife of a civil servant (Lior Raz), embattled in minor office politics, and the mother of a teenage son just about to complete his compulsory army service. She is competent in all those roles, but her heart really is in her Kindergarten.
One of the children she looks after is Yoav (beatifully portrayed by 5-year-old Avi Shnaidman). When Nira discovers that he has a talent for spontaneously inventing poetry in trancelike bursts, she decides to dedicate herself, beyond the call of duty, to allowing the boy’s talent to develop. This is not easy, as Yoav’s family circumstances are all except favourable to a future career as a poet. His mother left Yoav and his father to take up with a lover in America; Yoav’s father Amnon (Yehezkel Lazarov) is a successful owner of a Michelin- starred-restaurant, whose brother (Dan Toren) is a minor and relatively penniless poet. So in his view, to ensure his son’s happiness and financial well being, Yoav’s poetical side mustn’t be encouraged. As Yoav is also a very normal and quite social young lad when he doesn’t have one of his poetical trances, his father may indeed have a point.
Yoav’s nanny Miri (spiky performance by the multi talented Ester Rada) does her job quite well, but without any overenthusiasm. She is not much interested in what’s right or wrong for the child-poet in her charge. But she knows what’s good for her, and uses little Yoav’s poems as audition texts to further her acting career.
Nadav Lapid’s script and his characters worked for me. Nira’s development, as she lives out a mid-life crisis by giving full rein to her romantic ideas in just the area of her life where it’s arguable that she should act professionally at all times may truly annoy some viewers. Other more poetically inclined viewer's hearts may go out to her.
Fortunately, Lapid deploys a significant dose of irony and humour in the way he portrays how society around her reacts to what Nira has to reveal about her prodigy’s talents. Nira, while clearly obsessed, is clever and practical about checking out Yoav’s talents and seeking to protect the child.
As a director, Nadav Lapid has employed interesting means of using the camera perspective to give his audience more insight into what is going on; and it works.
The Kindergarten Teacher is a very human film, mainly about Nira’s personal journey. Not far below the surface, it is also about the role and goal of education in society and politics. Clearly situated in Israel, the film’s message will resonate in France and other European countries, where feeling uneasy about consumerism and pining for a life in which poetry and art that can nourish more than the soul is the dream of many a rat-race marathonist.
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