The inspirational story of an 84-year-old former Mau Mau rebel in a Kenyan village who tries to enroll in a local school and learn to read, this powerful film is a deep and rich exploration of a man's life-long fight for dignity and freedom. The film presents one man's intensely personal quest to receive an education, but it is also a portrait of a generation that transformed the face of colonial Africa by fighting for freedom. The use of flashback allows the audience to see the extraordinary hardships this man faced in his youth as an anti-colonial soldier, which is juxtaposed brilliantly with his struggle to attend school in his old age. The powerful sentiment of director Justin Chadwick's film does not simply lie in the fact that he goes back to school - it is in his dignity. Featuring outstanding performances by Oliver Litondo and Naomie Harris, "The First Grader" reminds audiences of the resilient nature of the human spirit.