Young Plato

Neasa Ní Chaináin and Declan McGrath’s outstanding documentary reveals the positive impact of a Belfast headmaster with an approach all his own.

Kevin McArevey is a wonderful man. But that's not enough in itself to make him truly stand out since McArevey is a teacher and we have all come across many an interview in which such figures are named as having been inspirational. But, however splendid such people are, not many of them would warrant being made the centre of a full-length documentary feature and McArevey does. He is the headmaster of Holy Cross Boys’ Primary School in the Ardoyne area of Belfast and his role there is the subject of Young Plato. This is an outstanding documentary by Neasa Ní Chaináin whose work is new to me although this is her fifth feature. Co-directing here with Declan McGrath, she handles it with such skill and sensitivity that Young Plato is not put in the shade by that classic French documentary of 2002, Nicholas Philibert’s Être et Avoir. That memorable study of a rural infants’ school was a huge hit and Young Plato is deserving of equal popularity.

There is no commentary in Young Plato but simply by observing McArevey with his staff and in his interactions with his pupils and, on occasion, with their parents we get to know the man. Biographical details only occasionally emerge. We do learn that he is married and has children and that he conquered troubles in his own life when younger, but to sideline such personal details seems right given the film’s intense focus on his work. It is soon apparent to us that this devoted teacher is a man with two obsessions. One of them, centred on his passion for Elvis Presley, is just a nice quirky detail; the other, his fascination with Greek philosophers, is far more than that. It’s not only Plato but also others, such as Seneca and Socrates, who are referenced here because ideas of theirs are central to his concept of teaching.

Thus it is that McArevey believes that pupils must be encouraged to think and to listen to the thoughts of others as an incentive to possibly changing and developing their own ideas. School is all about releasing the potential of the pupils by encouraging individuality and tolerance. But this is never achieved by dictating set beliefs because it is what comes out of discussions between the youngsters themselves that is valued, that being seen as what can grow and take root to real effect. McArevey may in the process evoke the names of the ancient Greeks whose ideas he reveres, but he makes all this accessible to the boys and is never ever patronising.

The way in which the film has been directed has a freedom and invention about it which ensure that it never feels staid. Even more importantly, it is acutely sensitive to the material. Consequently, the various pupils shown emerge vividly and without any hint of playing up to the camera or resenting its presence. So adroitly is it done that the portrait of life at Holy Cross holds us even if this is a film without dramatic developments beyond the ways in which the behaviour of some of the boys change over time. The final scenes take us into the Covid era but, given the absence of any real climax, one does sense that the last stages of the film would have gained from some pruning. That is a small point, however, and Young Plato makes a huge impact. That stems in part from McArevey’s own personality but also from the film’s context. Being set in contemporary Belfast, it is sensitive to present-day problems of the area such as drug abuse and to the inescapable continuing awareness of all that the Troubles meant. In this setting McArevey’s aims and methods are even more important. It would be wonderful if everyone who went to see Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast would then go to see Young Plato and if they did I am sure that they would come away feeling that they had done the right thing.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Featuring  Kevin McArevey and the pupils and staff of the Holy Cross Boys’ Primary School, Belfast.

Dir Neasa Ní Chaináin and Declan McGrath, Pro David Rane, Screenplay Etienne Essery, Declan McGrath and Neasa Ní Chaináin, Ph Neasa Ní Chaináin, Ed Philippe Ravoet, Music David Poltrock.

Soilsiú Films/Aisling Productions/Clin d’oeil Films/Zadig Productions-Cosmic Cat.
102 mins. Ireland/UK/Belgium. 2021. US Rel: 14 November 2021. UK Rel: 11 March 2022. Cert. 12A.