THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER
USA  |  2018  |  96 minutes  |  English  |  15A
Tuesday, 10 December  |  8PM
​Admission: €5 at door

Director: Sara Colangelo
Cast: Maggie Gyllenhall, Parker Sevak,  Anna Baryshnikov, Rosa Salazar, Michael Chernus and Gael García Bernal


Maggie Gyllenhaal gives a stand out performance as Lisa Spinelli a Kindergarten Teacher who inadvertently discovers her five-year-old student, Jimmy (Parker Sevak) is a gifted prodigy. Unfortunately for both, Lisa’s good intentions to nurture Jimmy’s undoubted gifts slowly turn to inappropriate protectiveness and erratic decision-making.
 
Gyllenhaal portrayal of the seemingly patient and caring Lisa, is a remarkable portrait of the psyche of a disillusioned woman. An aspiring but frustrated poet, Lisa yearns to be more than what she has becomes. Lisa confuses Jimmy’s gift as the means to refashion her frustrated life. Nuanced and subtly unnerving, Sara Colangelo adaption of Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid’s 2014 film of the same name, deservingly won the Directing Award at Sundance 2018.

​Shown at London Film Festival 2018; Sundance Film Festival 2018; Toronto International Film Festival 2018

​Winner, Director Award, Sundance Film Festival 2018
Nominee, People's Choice Award, Toronto International Film Festival 2018

“…a brilliantly observed ethical pretzel about a poetically gifted kid”
The Guardian
 
"Fluidly capturing the trajectory of a ruinous obsession, the writer and director, Sara Colangelo, skillfully fudges the line between mentoring and manipulation.”
​Jeannette Catsoulism, The NY Times