The Elementary School

Memo to New Yorker Video and others: we are now in the year 1997; home video is well over a decade old; we're tired of reading white subtitles on European films, which often feature a) snow, and b) white tablecloths (since, unlike Americans, these people still share family meals together at a real table--not a TV tray). Okay, end of tantrum...until the next time. Zdenek Sverák and son Jan Sverák, who--between them--have stood in line for an Oscar thrice and been rewarded once (this year for Kolya), nabbed a Best Foreign Film nomination for this 1991 effort, scripted by and starring Zdenek and directed by his son Jan. Set in 1945-1946 Czechoslovakia, this charming seen-through-the-eyes-of-a-child tale stars Vaclav Jacovbek as Eda, a 10-year-old boy who--like all Czechs at the time--is living in that short window between Nazi domination and Communist oppression. When Eda's unruly all-boy class sends one teacher to an asylum, a new substitute, Igor Hnizdo, arrives with jackboots and a conductor's baton (which he uses to whack the hands of boisterous boys and then requires them to say "thank you"). Although The Elementary School is a totally episodic paean to village life--with a subtle, though effective, anti-war message--the film is filled with wonderful moments: Eda's ingenious connecting of a baby's wheeled basket to his bike for a ride that virtually screams child abuse, the droning school principal who announces over the p.a. system during winter "do not lick the iron railings," and a school performance by a "fakir" who can write on the blackboard with his feet, are worth the watch. Beautifully filmed, The Elementary School never allows the political background to overwhelm the main focus on a boy's life with his friends, family, and heroes, and while it never quite attains the brilliance of My Life as a Dog, it is a wonderful addition to the rich storehouse of pre-adolescent stories from post-WWII Europe. Recommended. (R. Pitman)