The Canary Yellow Bicycle

Aris (Alexandris), a new teacher at an Athens primary school, slowly realises that Lefteris (Halaris), a slow learner from a neglectful home, has suffered years of disabling ridicule from his classmates, and misunderstanding, if not downright prejudice, from the teaching staff. Aris realises from Lefteris' ability to build his own bike (the yellow one of the title) that the boy's abilities have not been sufficiently tapped. Can Aris build up the boy's confidence in the face of indifference/hostility from all around? Stavrakas nurtures fine performances from his tow principles, and his heart is in all the right places, but despite the film's undoubted worthiness and charm, occasional overemphatic direction and an under-contextualised screenplay, render it overly simplistic and ultimately unsatisfying.