Nauka (Education)

20 MINUTES

A homework task prompts kids to reflect deeply on learning, and its limits

Learning can be enriching and even thrilling, sure. But it can also be confusing, tedious, exhausting, and any combination thereof. And, as the Polish director Emi Buchwald explores in Nauka (Education) (2016), this is especially true when it’s foisted upon you against your will, as it tends to be for many schoolchildren. Buchwald’s short documentary follows elementary schoolers as they take on an assignment to study and memorise the poem ‘Education’ by the Polish poet Julian Tuwim (1894-1953). At school, their teacher lays the ground rules. At home, their parents do their best to help prepare them for a dreaded in-class recitation.

Until a dramatic reading by a student in the film’s closing minutes, the poem’s full contents remain a mystery. Its themes of knowledge and its limits percolate in at-home conversations between kids and their parents, which Buchwald documents with a rotating camera. As the film bounces between scenes, the discussions are often funny and profound in the same breath. ‘The poet can write about whatever he wants. He doesn’t need your permission!’, says a father when his son is bewildered by a line. ‘Do you know anybody who knows how to live?’ another boy asks his mother in an earnest tone, laying beside her. Through this clever framework, the viewer’s journey mirrors that of the students as they try to piece together the poem’s meaning. The film grows more absorbing with each passing minute, as the poem slowly emerges alongside each household’s family dynamics.

Buchwald works from a Russian-nesting-doll of a structure, exploring education by recording schoolchildren as they ponder a poem that itself ponders education. (Not to mention that Buchwald made the short as a student filmmaker.) But the storytelling rests easily on this intricate foundation, never drawing distracting attention to the meta concept. Rather than getting lost in her premise, Buchwald builds a charming and often moving film from small human moments. The assignment opens up the kind of existential discussions that you get a sense these families rarely have, and students offer shrewd and surprising insights. Through interrogating the many challenges of education – both practical and philosophical – Buchwald creates a wonderful tribute to it, capturing its capacity to bring us together and help us grow.

Written by Adam D’Arpino

Director: Emi Buchwald

Cinematographer: Tomasz Gajewski

Explore more

Illustration of a person carrying a child on shoulders under a tree with yellow leaves on a pink background.

Dreamlike fragments capture the pain and beauty of a father-daughter bond

Directed by Susi Haaning

Photo of a hand using a black marker to redact text on paper several words are boxed to be emphasised.
POETRY

Reignite your creative fire with blackout poetry – the art of framing what’s already there

Directed by Andrew Lavers

Photo of a person speaking into a microphone holding an electric string instrument with a choir in the background.

The barbarians are at the gates in this electric Laurie Anderson performance

Video by All Arts

Collage featuring a cut-out photo of woman running overlaid on vintage photos.

Prison letters animate Diane’s attempt to understand a distant father

Directed by Diana Cam Van Nguyen

Painting of a woman in a flowing white dress and a man lying on a black background with ornamental corners.
LOVE

A girl upends her grandparents’ ‘love story’ in this hilarious animation

Directed by Maryam Mohajer

A Chinese middle-aged woman tending plants on a rooftop garden with residential buildings and a blue sky in the background.

Shuli’s mother has known he was gay for years. Can they finally talk about it?

A film by Shuli Huang

A smiling shirtless man with the outline of a child, as if cut out by scissors, sitting on his shoulders.

No kidding! Inside one childless comedian’s choice to get a vasectomy

A film by Jordan Temple

Two people enjoying a scenic sunset with one raising their arms and the other looking sideways, in an outdoor setting.

Three sisters craft a lyrical tribute to their mother from old family VHS tapes

Directed by Jay Stephen and Ralph Briscoe