Keswick Film Club - The Fencer

Synopsis

Hidden in this movie about a champion fencer on the run from the secret service in Leningrad in the 1950s, "Director Klaus Haro brings to light the terrible injustices faced by Estonians conscripted by the Nazi invaders during the Second World War and who are then hunted down by the secret police when the Soviets assume control" – Trevor Johnston, Radio Times.

Endel is hiding in plain sight by taking a job as a PE teacher in a poor, far-flung corner of Estonia. His teaching skills and empathy with his young charges result in some fine would-be fencers, who then want to take part in a competition...in Leningrad.

Haro gets much praise for the way he takes a simple story and builds in the tension, with the help of some good acting all round and some beautiful cinematography - "The film looks beautiful, too, with bleak, undersaturated landscapes and simple, austere photography establishing a distinct sense of time and place" - David Clack, Time Out