The Kindergarten Teacher

How far can a teacher go in her attempts to help nurture a child prodigy? When kindergarten teacher Lisa discovers a child’s exceptional talent for poetry, this is exactly what she must ask herself. Before she knows it, Lisa is way out in the grey areas of morals – where the consideration of the art might overshadow the consideration of the child.

This film confronts our society’s superficial relationship with the arts, and it’s hard to avoid sympathising with Lisa. However, it’s also saturated with the ambivalence of her increasingly dubious choices, creating more and more discomfort in the audience. Nothing is black or white, but something still feels very wrong.

Lisa is brilliantly interpreted by Maggie Gyllenhaal, in what critics say are one of the best performances of her career. The film is based on an Israeli film from 2014 by the same name.