The Fencer

Synopsis: It’s 1953 in post-war Soviet-occupied Estonia when Endel Nelis (Märt Avandi) arrives at a small village school in Haapsalu to take up the post of sports instructor. The school’s principal (Hendrik Toompere) takes an instant dislike to Endel and begins a secret investigation into his background discovering that he’s on the run after having escaped from being drafted into the Nazi forces during the war and that the Russian Secret Police are looking for him. Nevertheless, the students, especially Marta (Liisa Koppel) and Jaan (JoonasKoff), are excited by the idea of learning to fence and with the support of Jaan’s grandfather (Lembit Ufsak) and Endel’s former fencing partner, Aleksei (Kirill Käro), he is able to gather together the right equipment to teach them.  But when Marta discovers a National Fencing Competition is to be held in Leningrad, Endel must decide whether to prevent their participation or risk his life in order to see his students succeed.

There’s no shortage of films about misfit teachers who discover an aptitude that allows them to inspire their students to greatness and, against the odds, compete against schools with way more resources and higher likelihoods of success only, of course, to triumph. We saw Jack Black do it with a rock’n’roll band in Richard Linklater’s School of Rock (2003)and we saw Cliff Curtis do it with a chess club in James Napier Robertson’s The Dark Horse (2013) but this film does it in quite a different way.

First time screenwriter Anna Heinämaa had a good head start with the story being based on real events from the life of Estonian fencing champion Endel Keller (as he was known when the Nazis drafted him). For a start, fencing – as the school principal points out – is not ordinarily a sport that rural children would take to. But more significantly, the stakes for Endel, if he should be discovered, are much higher than in those other stories. It’s his life that’s at risk. Nevertheless, his passion for the sport and the relationship he, at first reluctantly and later very warmly, develops with the students overcomes any reluctance he might have for the task.

Whilst the narrative arc might be familiar, it’s the casting that elevates this film. Avandi brings a palpable vulnerability to Endel. He is cold and remote and, understandably, fearful of opening up to anyone, all of which makes the thawing of his character all the more watchable. As his antagonist, Toompere makes the principal believable in his suspicions and inevitable actions and, a few false notes in the final scene aside, he elicits our sympathy as well. Both Ufsak as the grandfather and Ursula Ratasepp as Kadri, Enedl’s fellow teacher and love interest are also good in their respective roles but it’s the children who steal the show. Koppel, as Marta, exudes an inner strength in her character that is part defiance and part innocence and as the sensitive boy who seeks a father figure, Koff’s performance is heartbreakingly good.

Despite its real life origins and the seriousness of its subject matter, the film has a predictability about it. The excellent performances and beautiful cinematography by Tuomo Hutri, cannot disguise the fact that much of the time it ends up feeling like a soft version of its story, hinting at, but not delving into the less rosy aspects of Endel’s backstory and fate. Of course, this allows it a PG rating and it’s a fine film for family viewing, but I couldn’t help wondering about those darker elements and what a harder-edged take might have made of them.

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