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The Class
DVD cover
Estonian	Klass
Directed by	Ilmar Raag
Written by	Ilmar Raag
Produced by	Ilmar Raag Riina Sildos
Starring	Vallo Kirs Pärt Uusberg Lauri Pedaja Paula Solvak
Cinematography	Kristjan-Jaak Nuudi
Edited by	Tambet Tasuja
Music by	Martin Kallasvee Paul Oja Timo Steiner
Distributed by	Estonian Culture Film
Release date	16 March 2007 (2007-03-16)
Running time	98 minutes [1]
Country	Estonia
Language	Estonian
Box office	$7,205 [2]

The Class ( Estonian: Klass) is a 2007 Estonian drama film directed by Ilmar Raag. Themed on school violence, it was released on March 16, 2007. A 7 episode series was later produced, telling what happens after the initial movie. The series was called Class: Life After ( Estonian: Klass: Elu pärast, which can also be translated as "Class: For Life").

Plot

Joosep Raak is an Estonian teenager who is being bullied by his entire high school class. The bullying is spearheaded by Anders, his accomplice Paul, and three other friends: Toomas, Tiit, and Olav. Anders encourages the class to continually beat up Joosep, and harass him in other ways as well, such as fully undressing him and then pushing him into the girls' changing room after playing basketball. Classmate Kaspar Kordes decides to defend and help Joosep, such as giving him a spare pair of shoes after Paul tore Joosep's shoes, which does not sit well with the whole class; Kaspar becomes separated from the group. Kaspar's love interest Thea becomes distant from him and this begins to worry him, but he continues to defend his friend Joosep.

Joosep's teacher Laine becomes aware of Joosep receiving harassment and sends Paul to the headmistress's office, so he frames Kaspar for the harassment, which leads to the school contacting Joosep's parents. Joosep's father Margus, a militarist who's fascinated with guns and who insists on Joosep being a "real man", confronts him about the accusation of Kaspar bullying him, and Joosep dismissively reveals that it's the whole class, which angers Margus. He tells Joosep to fight the ringleader of the crowd as he believes it is the only way to stop somebody from bullying him. The next day, when Anders and his four friends go to attack Joosep, the restrained Kaspar breaks free and attempts to hit Anders with a chair, which Anders manages to dodge. Anders then claims that Kaspar has "gone crazy".

Anders asks Kaspar to meet him in the school playground after class. Upon meeting up with an expected fight, Kaspar tells Anders that he will accept the fact that he will not be a "normal guy", where then Paul, Toomas, Tiit, and Olav appear with a restrained Joosep and lock Kaspar in a burned down shed where they force him to watch as they take turns to hit Joosep, to the point where he can't breathe anymore. Before leaving off, Anders tells Kaspar that if he continues to defend Joosep, it will only earn Joosep worse beatings. Joosep goes to Kaspar's apartment complex, where and he informs Kaspar that he wishes for him to stop defending him. A concerned Kaspar asks what Joosep will do and suggests that he could shoot them by referencing a God's law. Joosep believes that it will be best if he simply lets it go on until he has completely finished school so he will never see them again and be free.

Thea becomes saddened and angered when the class starts believing that in a homophobic atmosphere, Joosep and Kaspar are ridiculed for supposedly having gay feelings for each other. Kaspar becomes stressed by this and tries to talk Thea down about it but she starts believing that Kaspar cares more about Joosep than her and leaves him. Meanwhile, Joosep is again beaten in class.

When returning home from school, Joosep's mother Liina discovers heavy bruises on his chest as well as a cut on his chin; she demands to know what is happening, but he refuses to tell, and Margus supports him. Liina informs the school administration and at last, the class as a whole is rightly blamed. When Laine confronts the class about the claim, Joosep runs home fearing the worst. When he enters his home crying, Margus tries to encourage his son to fight back and demonstrates a fighting technique by giving the boy an additional type of punch.

Out of revenge, the class assembles on a beach, calling both Kaspar and Joosep there by writing emails to them showing each other as fake senders. Once there, they make Thea confess to Kaspar that she is no longer with him in front of the whole crowd which sets him off, and he beats Anders to the ground only to have a knife pulled on him. They all then force Kaspar to fellate Joosep at knifepoint and photograph the sexual act without showing the knife. Kaspar throws up afterward and the class walks away, leaving the two at the beach alone for now.

The boys decide to exact revenge. Joosep steals Margus's two pistols, a sawed-off bolt-action rifle, and ammunition from his gun safe while Margus is asleep, and the two proceed to school the next morning. Students and teachers notice the guns in their hands, and when a teacher encounters them about it they simply walk past and Joosep tells her to call the police. Kerli, a gothic girl from the class who also witnessed the incident at the beach, decides to let the two have their revenge and walks past them. They begin the massacre of the students responsible for their torment. Joosep shoots Tiit at close range and then shoots Olav in the head. Joosep then shoots and kills Thea's best friend Riina. To their regret, Kaspar accidentally shoots an eighth-grade female student from another class while trying to shoot Anders. Toomas tries to grab the gun from Joosep but ends up getting shot in the abdomen, then Anders and Paul manage to restrain him and take his rifle; however, Kaspar saves Joosep by shooting Paul in the head. Just before Anders can reach the exit, he is shot in the shoulder. Kaspar attempts to shoot him with an empty pistol, but Joosep runs over and executes Anders himself. Joosep then goes over to finish off Thea but Kaspar stops him and decides to spare her. Finally, Joosep and Kaspar, facing one another, each aim a gun at their own head, and decide to commit suicide together after counting to three. Joosep pulls the trigger and dies, but the film ends with Kaspar still standing there with his gun aimed at his head.

Cast

Critical reception

It currently holds an 89% approval rating among users on Rotten Tomatoes. ^[3]

Awards

In 2007, The Class received an award from Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and Warsaw International Film Festival. The film was also the official Estonian submission to the Best Foreign Language Film Category of the 80th Academy Awards. ^[4]

Political invocations

Since the movie was released, one school shooting has taken place in the country. Two other school shootings have taken place in nearby Finland — the Jokela school shooting and the Kauhajoki school shooting. In analysis of both events, the movie has been raised as an illustration by columnists and other media pundits.^{[ citation needed]}

References

External links

• The Class at IMDb
• Variety review