The Fencer emancipates Estonian children

The Fencer is a Finnish-Estonian-German coproduction based on the true story of Endel Nelis, a championship fencer who worked as a sports teacher in Haapsalu, a small coastal Estonian town. It is important to know that the Soviets occupied Estonia in 1940 and drove out the Nazis; but also persecuted the Estonian men who had been forced to join the German army. Many were executed or sent to Siberia, so the small towns were populated by children without fathers. Estonia only regained its independence in 1991. Back to the film, and just after the war, Nelis (Mart Avandi) arrives as the new sports teacher. The suspicious principal (Hendrik Toompere) remarks that fencing is not a proletarian sport, and therefore not suitable for the children. After his attempt to set up a skiing club is scuppered by the army taking all his equipment, and he is observed by young Marta practicing, he sets up a Saturday fencing club. It is great to see the children and later the parents supporting their development and expressing themselves; they start using branches as foils and only gradually acquire donated equipment. There is a back story that Endel fled Leningrad and he must make a difficult choice as to whether to support his team in the national fencing tournament in Leningrad. There is a real sense of despair and depravation, that is somehow mediated by individual focus and achievement in the structured sport of fencing. We see a few children liberated by their ability to compete, despite a lack of practice and equipment. There is also a desperation mirrored in Endels who is clearly running away but has also learned to love and inspire the children to do their best.