Director Nicolas Philibert takes us to rural France, to the Auvergne region, to show us how a great teacher can make the difference in the lives of these children. It is a magical trip, indeed.

In these times of school killings, unruly and disruptive students, it is very refreshing to find a dedicated teacher, such as M. Lopez, who is an inspiration and an example to the would be educators and a treasure to whatever school or class will have him teach his craft.

This man is at the end of his teaching career. He is in charge now of a one room school in the country, where he teaches the children of the local farmers. M. Lopez is friendly, but at the same time, he is firm in telling some of the students where they are not doing enough. At the same time one can only feel the plight of the older children as they have to help the family in running the farm, so it's not an easy task to go to school and have to come home to do chores that have to be done.

The small children are delightful to see. Their angelic faces and their inter action among themselves are typical of kids in that age range. The saddest point of the film is when the teacher has to confront a bully and his victim, who tells M. Lopez at the end about his cancer stricken father as tears roll down his cheeks.

This year two great documentaries have surfaced, Spellbound and now this one. What a beautiful approach to show the process of learning.

... and say that this is one of the warmest and most accomplished documentaries of the last few years. Deceptive simplicity is not the easiest thing to pull off but here it works perfectly. The thing is that there's no way to tell people who haven't seen it that a film that spans about six months in a one-room schoolhouse in the Auvergne with teacher and pupils being rather than playing themselves is so rewarding. Winter turns into Spring, Spring becomes early Summer. That's it. The changes in the pupils are less obvious, more felt than seen. The teacher, in his last year before retirement is far less academically gifted than Mr. Chips but he is Real as opposed to the fictional Chips and both are imbued with the hard-to-pin-down qualities that make good teachers. A second viewing, about a year later found the film holding up well. 9/10

I did not expect to like this film or care about the people in it as much as I did. After all, this is just a documentary about a one-room school in rural France--it doesn't exactly sound like an exciting topic, does it? Plus, to top it off, the film has absolutely no narration--the camera simply focuses on the day to day routines of the students and teacher. What a shock, then, when I found myself captivated after only the first few minutes. The producer, director and editor did a fantastic job of piecing it all together as well as giving us what the viewer wanted--REAL kids and quite a few really cute ones at that. My wife and I actually found ourselves rooting for them--especially little JoJo--the occasionally not terribly bright little kid who liked to stick his pencil up his nose! One day, I am sure, he will become rich and successful and have the last laugh!

By the way, if you liked this, try watching A TOUCH OF GREATNESS about an amazingly innovative and inspiring teacher.