This tautly paced, precisely executed, darkly comic thriller plays with the genre tropes of a hostage drama while offering important social commentary. When a bitter, frustrated, recently divorced dad takes his daughter’s grade school classroom hostage on her birthday, the burg’s unscrupulous mayor attempts to use the situation to his political advantage in advance of the upcoming elections. Meanwhile, an ambitious, cynical web journalist also spies a route to fame. As anxious parents wait outside the school — including a local cop and the mother of the birthday girl who just happens to be the sister of the mayor’s rival — secrets and lies come to light, and heroes and cowards are born. Writer/director Ivan-Goran Vitez keeps a number of hot-button issues within his purview, including Croatia’s endemic corruption, the remnants of the paramilitary from the Balkan war and the return of right-wing rhetoric. With its top-notch cast and tension-inducing score, Extracurricular is gripping, provocative and shockingly funny.

Director Ivan-Goran Vitez is expected to be in attendance on January 4 and 5.