The Flying Classroom
THE FLYING CLASSROOM is the screen adaptation of Erich Kästner’s children’s novel. Set at a Bavarian boarding school shortly before the Christmas holidays, the story revolves around missing dictation notebooks, fierce fistfights with boys from a local secondary school, the teacher Justus and a mysterious man known as the Non-Smoker, so called because he lives in a disused non-smoking railway carriage. It is a story about friends who stand by each other unconditionally, a tale of hope and mutual respect – made all the more poignant by the fact that the novel was published in 1933, just as the Nazis seized power, against a backdrop of growing hatred and contempt for humanity.
Image © Bavaria Film