The Childhood of a Leader

The film follows Prescott, a young American boy living with his parents in France after World War I. His father works with the American team shaping the Treaty of Versailles, while his mother tries to control a troubled home. Prescott answers rules, lessons, and adult lies with anger, tricks, and cruel acts. The story moves through three tantrums and ends by showing the kind of leader he becomes. The mood is cold, quiet, and frightening.

The film presents the family, the church, and the peace talks as failed forms of power. It links the boy’s hunger for control to an absent father, a distant mother, religious pressure, and adults who cannot make a fair peace. The film also shows a boy with long hair who is mistaken for a girl, and the detail feeds his anger and vanity. Its main warning concerns fascism, private cruelty, and the way broken adults can help create a tyrant.