On the Way to School

I am surprised that I am the first person to post a review on this astonishing, great film.

This is a documentary film of 4 groups of children, who bet on a belief that their future will be developed by "studying". So do their parents, who send their children with earnest encouragement and prayer.

In the beginning, a boy digs a hole on sandy place. He digs by his both hands, earnestly, until some water seep. As I was thinking, "Oh yes, children like to do this with sand…", he dips water by a plastic ladle and washes his school uniform in a bucket. Furthermore, he fills two plastic bottles too, which he and his younger sister bring to the school.

Their school-commuting route is middle of nowhere in savanna in Kenya. Every day, they go to and from the school for 15km, 2 hours. Sometimes, they climb to a higher place to find a safe way to avoid dangerous elephants. They walk on quickly, through the grasses or bush. The audiences may feel, "Is the school still far away? When will they arrive?"

There are other 3 groups of such adventurous journeys. According to the official web site, the director Plisson made a list of places of hash school going from the world, having cooperation of international organizations like UNESCO. From the list, he selected the 4 children groups, who have strong belief that education will open their future.

All those children love their school, friends, and they study really hard. It is because of their such belief that I feel I am taught and encouraged by them, rather than feeling pity.

This movie has recently come out on US Netflix. Although we see how far these children have to travel to get to school and the obstacles they face (sometimes dangerous), the movie is not depressing at all. These kids are full of joy, and there isn't a hint of complaint in them. I came out of this movie appreciating how blessed these children really are that their parents approve of their long commute to school, as it becomes obvious that similar children in neighbouring villages probably aren't all granted that opportunity. It also makes you think of the children whose villages are just that many more km away from schools, for whom it would literally be impossible to attend. So the movie leaves you feeling very happy that, although it's not easy, and if you stuck your average western child (or wealthy child in the developing world) into this situation, they'd be like "What the?!?" and possibly kick up a fuss. Also, many parents of well-off children (and perhaps poor children as well, I don't know, it depends on the parents), are so over-protective of their children that they hardly let them go out into the street or park unsupervised for 5 or 10 minutes, let alone commute by themselves to school. So in that way, it also made me feel sorry for our children, that they don't get exposed to wide open nature that you see in this movie (which is varied and absolutely gorgeous - you could watch this film just to see the amazingly beautiful landscapes and enjoy it for that reason alone), nor do they develop the survival and problem-solving skills and independence that the children in this movie have, obviously. And do you know what? That's quite sad. This movie shows how capable and strong children are. Thinking of childhood as this time to just play or be catered to and protected constantly, and have ample time to be very bored, is really quite an illusion we've created over the decades. Throughout our history, children have learned more skills, been given more responsibility, than what we deem appropriate or necessary in the well-off west. I definitely see this as a problem. In any case, enough about my philosophical (or sociological? whatever you call it) ramblings. This is a lovely and simple documentary type of movie that merely shows footage of four groups of children (in Kenya, Morocco, India, and Argentina) making their way to school alone, without adult supervision, across vast expanses of land. We are allowed little snippets into their culture and way of life as we also see a bit of footage of their cities and towns, their family homes, and other countryfolk they encounter on their journeys. It's extremely touching. I recommend showing it to your own children.

An interesting documentary about the lengths four kids from different parts of the world have to go through to get to school, marred only by the fact that most if not all of it is pretty obviously staged. There are several moments where the kids face difficulties that an adult could help them with, and they bemoan the fact that there are no adults around to help them ... if only a camera crew were standing next to them, huh? There's one scene where the children face imminent peril from wild animals ... yet the camera crew makes no attempt to get away. I'm not suggesting the content of this film is made up. I believe that it's true. But with the film containing so many immaculately shot sequences from multiple angles, it's obvious it was staged, which can't help but make you wonder how much elaboration happened for dramatic purposes.

A beautiful job in telling such a great story and keeping it authentic, yet high quality. It felt like a movie even though it was a documentary.

And the fact that these kids do what they do to learn is amazing.

I truly enjoyed the end interviews too.

Critics may say that this film stays surface level or Disney-fies a critical human rights issue. They clearly have never watched it with their 5 and 8 year old kids. This movie started conversations about other places and religions and - most importantly - privilege. It let the stories stand alone, and that may not be such a bad thing.