The Fencer (Miekkailija)
Directed by: Klaus Härö
Written by: Anna Heinämaa
Starring: Märt Avandi, Lembit Ulfsak, Ursula Ratasepp, Hendrik Toompere, Liisa Koppel, Joonas Koff, Kirill Käro, Jaak Prints
Drama/History/Sport - 99 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 9 Aug 2017
Written by: Anna Heinämaa
Starring: Märt Avandi, Lembit Ulfsak, Ursula Ratasepp, Hendrik Toompere, Liisa Koppel, Joonas Koff, Kirill Käro, Jaak Prints
Drama/History/Sport - 99 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 9 Aug 2017
The Baltic States don’t get very many breaks in international relations. Throughout history, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have been a footpath between neighboring major powers. During World War II, Nazi Germany rolled in first and conscripted all of the military-aged males to fight for the Wehrmacht. The Baltic States were re-conquered all over again when the Soviet Union pushed west. Any men found to have fought for Germany were arrested and sent to an all-expense paid vacation to Siberia. Fairness and explanations did not matter much to Stalin. The Fencer is a based on a true story account of one of these men forced to fight for Germany during the war and now ducking the Soviet Secret Police. More inspirational material centered on teacher/student relationships rather than the dramatic thriller you expect it to be, The Fencer shoots and scores through sentimentality pulling all the right emotional strings.
The heat is on Endel Nelis (Märt Avandi). Exiling himself from Leningrad to hide out in the Estonian sticks as a secondary school’s new PE teacher is better than Siberian tundra, but maybe not by much. Endel is a professional fencing competitor; directing kids to jump over the school pommel horse is its own version of confinement. The school principal (Hendrik Toompere) is a rule enforcing, know your place in the proletariat apparatchik. When Endel starts a remedial fencing club, the principal tells Endel to knock it off; fencing is a sport for the bourgeoisie and city boys from Leningrad – it is not suitable for communal rural farming communities.
The heat is on Endel Nelis (Märt Avandi). Exiling himself from Leningrad to hide out in the Estonian sticks as a secondary school’s new PE teacher is better than Siberian tundra, but maybe not by much. Endel is a professional fencing competitor; directing kids to jump over the school pommel horse is its own version of confinement. The school principal (Hendrik Toompere) is a rule enforcing, know your place in the proletariat apparatchik. When Endel starts a remedial fencing club, the principal tells Endel to knock it off; fencing is a sport for the bourgeoisie and city boys from Leningrad – it is not suitable for communal rural farming communities.
The students, however, are fascinated by the foreign sport. Endel must choose between placing a spotlight on himself through the displeasure of the local Soviet Education Board and the rising morale and excitement of the students he is only beginning to learn how to instruct. Reminiscent of standard underdog teams with a motivational teacher like Stand and Deliver and more recently, Queen of Katwe, The Fencer says the upper crust does not have a monopoly on a sport some consider elitist and only meant for a certain class of athlete.
Rounding out the town and times, writer Anna Heinämaa and director Klaus Härö, throw in a romantic interest for Endel in Kadri (Ursula Ratasepp). Kadri, a fellow teacher and noticeably the only other female in town Endel’s age, has no other dimensions or interests other than to worry about Endel and plead for him to keep his head down. Perhaps the most interesting character is a grandfather of one of the fencing students (Lembit Ulfsak). The old man defends fencing at the PTA meeting knowing full well it may spell his doom when the authorities label him an undesirable ripe for re-education.
The Fencer may easily be accused of excess emotional manipulation, but the effort works when combined with the peculiar time and place in 1953 Estonia. Chafing as an outlier Soviet Socialist Republic on the fringe of the Evil Empire, Haro shows the small Estonian community rally around a cause to show the next generation there still are some beacons of hope for the future rather than what some Politburo a thousand miles away says is right for you. The Fencer earned a surprising Golden Globe Best Foreign Film nomination. It is a feel good film, but it does not reach the top tier of much stronger foreign competitors. The Fencer is a quirky movie to take a break with before you dive back into heavier dramatic territory.
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