A school built inside a train car teaches a girl that learning happens when someone believes you're worth believing in. The film moves at the speed of childhood memory, which means it sits with small moments until they become everything, a teacher listening, a friend laughing, sunlight through a window during wartime. By the end, you understand why Tetsuko Kuroyanagi spent her life telling this story: it's about the last place in Tokyo where a child could still be free.

A spirited girl named Totto-chan arrives at an unconventional Tokyo school during wartime, one where retired train carriages serve as classrooms and rigid rules dissolve into something far more magical. Her new headmaster, Sosaku Kobayashi, founded the school and believes deeply in letting children express themselves and move freely, blending lessons with play, liberty and affection. Adapted from Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's autobiographical memoir, the film recalls her own childhood there. As an adult, she became one of Japan's best-known television figures and credits her success to this school and the man who ran it. Warm and gentle, this slice-of-life film looks back on an unusual education during the years of World War II.