Documentary filmmaker Paweł Ferdek delves into the take-no-prisoners world of electoral politics as seen in one Warsaw elementary school. Marcel, a self-acknowledged long-shot, opens LEADERS saying that he is running for student council out of boredom, a desire to make certain that pesky Natalka doesn't win and, finally, because "I like to be in charge and use people." This bracing spirit of "realpolitik" extends to the kids' parents (with one father pointing out that buying fellow students off with candy isn’t fundamentally different from professional politicians promising lower taxes and higher pensions). Indeed, a quarrelsome debate makes us wonder at what point the school's civic lesson simply perpetuates the less savory aspects of elections. Successfully balancing sympathetic observation and comic satire, LEADERS lays bare the outsized role of ego in politics-as-usual. - Max Goldberg
