Kindergarten

Kindergarten: a garden of children. This is the environment in which Quebec’s Jean-François Caissy studies infants in the latest of his observational documentaries about life’s milestones. Focussing almost exclusively on the toddlers themselves (the caregivers are mostly heard but not seen), the film gets up close and personal — though ironically this feels quite distant, like watching a nature film about an alien species which uncannily resembles our own.

Structured to follow the gradual progression of ages on screen, the film takes us into the bubble of various children from ages 1 to 5, at a stage where the world seems to revolve around them, and self-awareness slowly shifts from ’I’ to ’We’. Through these rarely filmed moments, human nature gradually takes shape.

The film delivers delightful surprises, as in a toy dinosaur lying in a melting patch of snow, or a shoe sole that lights up the partial darkness of nap time, or that feeling of washing your hands of acrylic paint that has begun to dry. For 84 minutes, Kindergarten becomes a portal to nostalgia and of unique insight: permitting us to witness humanity at its most primal, pure and free. What emerges is a slice of life returning us to a state of curiosity and a period of incessant growth […] Here, even the littlest things, like a loose string in a glove, evoke total wonder.

Nirris Nagendrarajah, POV magazine

Kindergarten unfolds almost like a nature documentary, only we are following human children instead of animals […] a charming film to watch, but also a fascinating observational portrait of early childhood development.

John Corrado, Joy of Movies