Check Out What School is Like in Ireland, With School Life!

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this screener free of charge,from Magnolia Pictures, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it, all opinions are my own.

This new movie from Magnolia Pictures comes to theatres on on September 8th!

Synopsis;

This observational documentary follows a year in the lives of two inspirational teachers in the only primary-age boarding school in Ireland. Headfort, a school not unlike Hogwarts with its 18th century buildings, secret doors and magical woodlands has been home to John and Amanda Leyden for 46 years and a backdrop to their extraordinary careers.For John, rock music is just another subject alongside Maths, English, Scripture and Latin, all of which are taught in a collaborative and often hilarious fashion. Tucked away in a cellar that’s home to the school’s two rock bands, John nurtures a special kind of youth revolution that teaches responsibility and independence in equal measure, wrapped up in heavy metal or pop or, as he tells the kids, they can play whatever they want, as it’s their space.

For Amanda the key to connecting with children is the book and she uses all means to snare the young minds. Her lair, a charming room from the 1800’s with curved doors and old bookshelves, is packed to the rafters with thousands of titles from every genre and for every taste. The children sit transfixed as she takes them on magical journeys with fantastical characters from tales of all kinds. Past pupils who visit remind her of their shared literary expeditions with a sense of awe – Amanda just nods and smiles.

Is the school an anachronism in this globalised world or a clever remake of the flawed British public school model? It’s certainly a contradiction: the epitome of establishment, it’s presided over by a leftward-leaning headmaster who eschews class in favour of achievement, but retains the links that connect Headfort to the levers of power. It’s a skill the headmaster could have learnt from John Leyden who taught him, when he was a pupil at Headfort, just as he produced a slew of other high achievers, now captains of industry, famous artists and academics.

For nearly half a century John and Amanda have shaped thousands of minds but now the unthinkable looms: what would retirement mean they muse. Headfort School, spanning the ancient and the ultra modern has been their life and passion and so they’ve challenged the march of time by absorbing an endless supply of energy and young ideas from their wards – but who will keep them young if they leave?

A film by Neasa Ní Chianáin and David Rane (check out a great interview with the filmakers HERE)

Watch the trailer:

https://youtu.be/Nl_eP39tXW0

Review:

Where to start? This is an absolutely charming movie that draws you in, and keeps you spellbound! Part documentary, part reality TV, it seems like fiction, but it's not! 

“FINDS POETRY IN THE RAW NATURE OF EDUCATION. The most adorable documentary that Frederick Wiseman never made.” - IndieWire

i really can't put it better than that!

I can NOT fathom teaching in ONE school for 45 years! And then to have your pupil back running the school?  But it's the love for teaching the kids that comes through so well. one look at John and you think, "bah, he's the rebel'. But he's not- that's the headmaster! John is the one who worries about kids' souls- their inner torment and character. meanwhile his wife also sees what other might miss- how one child struggles and another works with him, on his own, so that he finishes and stays with the class. I was also quite pleased to see how the child's dyslexia was handled by all the teachers, and how abreast they were of how the secondary schools helped/didn't. You can see the love for the school in the pupils who return, and how the oldest don't really want to leave.

“If Hogwarts was an Irish boarding school, this would be it; magical teachers in a ‘Muggle’ world.”  Sarah Ahern – Fantastic Flix Programmer for the Dublin International Film Festival

 EXACTLY! if you're looking for an 'indie film; that stirs the heart- THIS is the film!