In a poor community in South Yorkshire, England, Billy Casper, 15, endures constant abuse from his family and is bullied by classmates at school. After stumbling upon a kestrel’s nest, he adopts one of the chicks and trains it with the help a book he steals from a shop. As he teaches the bird, the boy has trouble in his classes and his teachers subject him to countless punishments and humiliations. A ferocious critique of the educational system in post-war Britain, Kes was listed in seventh place on the British Film Institute’s best 100 films of the 20th century.