No use for poetry

“Being a poet in our world is going against the nature of the world,” Nira says, and the most surprising — the most radical — aspect of “The Kindergarten Teacher” is how fiercely it defends that view. (…)  “The Kindergarten Teacher” is a furious indictment of the materialism and complacency of 21st-century life, in Israel and implicitly beyond. Yoav, innocent and barely conscious of the meaning of his poems, is the uncanny voice of a disinherited tradition. His father, a flashy restaurateur, has no use for poetry. The boy’s uncle, who published a volume of verses before drifting into bitterness and penury as a journalist, is a grim specter of literary failure. Such poets as exist in the world — the shouters at the reading, Nira’s workshop instructor — run the gamut from vulgar to pretentious.

“The Kindergarten Teacher” — the film as well as the character — yearns for different values, for intensity, beauty and meaning. Its sobering lesson is that the search for those things is most likely to end in madness, confusion and violence. / A.O. Scott, New York Times 31.7.