The Elementary School (1991)

Original title

Obecná škola

Directed by

Jan Svěrák

Genre

drama film, comedy film, war film

Country

Czechoslovakia

Runtime

1h 40m

Rated

12

Rating

7.3 of 10 from 64 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A group of rowdy boys in a post-war Prague school get a stern new teacher who is a war hero. He tries to control the class while facing accusations about his private life.

nostalgicgentlewrywarmplayfulreflectivecoming-of-agesweet

What happens

The Elementary School (Czech: Obecná škola) is a 1991 Czechoslovak comedy-drama film directed by Jan Svěrák. The screenplay comes from the pen of his father Zdeněk Svěrák. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1991 and is considered to belong among the best Czechoslovak films ever. A prequel, Barefoot, was released in 2017. The film is set in the early post-war period, in a suburban elementary school in Prague's vicinity. A war hero is hired as a teacher, and asked to discipline an unruly class of boys. He soon earns their respect, but he is threatened with termination over his reputed sexual relationship with two highschool girls. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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