Nadav Lapid • Israel • 2014

Nira meets a young boy and resorts to increasingly audacious measures to cultivate his talent.

Middle-aged Nira works in an elementary school. She has a decent relationship with her husband, a low-level bureaucrat, and sees her children from time to time. While her life may lack inspiration, Nira soon encounters a young genius in her midst—the poems of Yoav, her five-year-old student, are some of the most beautiful she has ever heard. Unable to untether herself from a fascination in his genius, Nira's interest in the boy soon turns to obsession, as she resorts to increasingly audacious measures to cultivate his talent.

Later made into an English-language adaptation featuring Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Kindergarten Teacher probes the limits of what an individual will do to protect, and vicariously attain, creative genius. Nadav Lapid's second feature premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, Locarno, BFI London, San Francisco, Vienna, and New Directors/New Films. The Kindergarten Teacher is a New York Times Critics' Pick.