Review of The Elementary School

Shortly after the end of WWII, a new male teacher starts in a grammar school in a quiet poor suburb of a city in Central Europe. This former officer in a uniform with a REAL PISTOL and always a war story at hand catches the hearts of all boys very quickly. When you are a young boy, the world is so full of adventures! But sooner or later you will learn that life is more then just boy games and adventures ... Althoug The Elementary School might be seen as a movie for young boys, it also brings with it a very serious hidden message (contrary to Oscar winning Kolya of the same director). If you look away from the child games and small rascalities, the true central character is Eda's father. The movie consist of memories of an old man who recapitulates his childhood and his relation to a strong fatherly figure in his family. It is about lost childhood, lost innocence and the first questioning whether my father is really the best, greatest, wisest, strongest etc. man in the world. This is even more important line of the story then the Tom-Sawyer-like undertakings. And the movie is really good ...