Lenas Klasse

Lena is a bright, disabled girl who, after years spent studying at home, is keen to get back to school. She is assigned to a special class for disabled pupils who have to present themselves before a school commission at the end of the year in order to prove that they merit being moved back into a "normal" class. Her enervated teachers, however, show absolutely no desire to motivate the students and help them improve; on the contrary, they try to quash right from the start any interest Lena shows in more complex study material. Nevertheless, Lena soon involves herself in the school routine and gets together with classmate Anton. Yet their transparent happiness isn't to everyone's liking and repercussions soon follow. Adopting a documentary perspective, young debut director Ivan I. Tverdovsky avoids embellishment to unfold an entirely credible drama portraying the unequal struggle of the individual in the face of institutional torpor, human prejudice and a society that tries to trip up people who are different. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)