The ancient Greeks have received their share of knocks in recent years. Political pundits, aggrieved scholars, and the like have taken to task Aristotle, Socrates, and Pericles, among others, for allegedly setting into motion every conceivable social ill. In doing so, they of course willfully ignore the Greeks’ staggering range and depth of thought that went on to foster intellects as diverse as St. Augustine, Shakespeare, and Frederick Douglass.

Add to this latter list the name Kevin McArevey. The headmaster of Holy Cross Boys Primary School in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Mr. McArevey would likely demur at being placed in such an illustrious company. Given the opportunity, he’d forgo a discussion of “The Republic” and its relative merits to expound upon the grand philosophe of Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis Presley. A bigger fan of the King would be difficult to find.

Elvis and Plato aren’t the only notables referenced in “Young Plato,” the new documentary by Neasa Ní Chianáin and Declan McGrath. As their camera passes along a classroom wall, we see cut-out portraits, as well as accompanying quotations, belonging to a number of historical figures, including Maimonides, Ibn Rashd, Hypatia, Confucious, and, down in the makeshift faculty gym, Pele. “The more difficult the victory,” the latter posting reads, “the greater the happiness in winning.”

Holy Cross Boys Primary School is situated in Ardoyne, a working class neighborhood that was the site of numerous sectarian clashes between Republicans and Loyalists. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 did much to quell the violence, but Ardoyne remains tense. Not 10 minutes into “Young Plato,” we watch as the student body is hustled out of the building because a “viable device” — that is to say, a bomb — has been found directly outside the grounds. 

Principal McArevey follows up the incident by inviting Leonard, a former Holy Cross student who is well into middle-age, to talk to the students about The Troubles, describing Ardoyne in the 1960s and ’70s as “a war zone.” Entrenched attitudes, to one degree or another, are evident among the 9- and 10-year-olds in attendance. The good principal invokes Socrates and Heraclitus as a means of broadening the purview of both students and parents.

Ms. Chianáin was in the process of making a film about another teacher employing similar methodologies, but, in the end, feared the private school setting might appear to favor an approach feasible to only a privileged few. When Mr. McGrath informed her about Holy Cross and the hard-knuckle neighborhood it served, Ms. Chianáin took note. Who has the chutzpah to sell a cadre of bearded eggheads from antiquity to a community wracked by drugs, poverty, and paramilitarism?

Certainly, the filmmakers knew that with Mr. McArevey they had, if not a star on their hands, then an irresistible anchor. A towering figure with a bald pate and an authoritative demeanor, Mr. McArevey doesn’t only worship at the altar of Elvis — his office, car, and phone are festooned with memorabilia — but he’s a whiz with a Rubik’s Cube and given to intense workouts. Keeping his turbulent youth under wraps, the Principal of Holy Cross goes to the happy place in his mind when stress gets the better of him. It’s Graceland, naturally.

What’s left unexplored is just how efficacious Mr. McArevey’s pedagogy might be. During the course of the film, we repeatedly encounter students whose behavior is decidedly unplatonic in nature. We cheer them on, of course, as we do the efforts of Principal McArevey and his cohorts. By turns funny, frustrating, and heartbreaking, “Young Plato” is a winning testament to how hope can be cultivated under even the most challenging of circumstances.