Top 250 Movies Like The Principal

A list of the best movies similar to The Principal. If you liked The Principal then you may also like: The Unguarded Moment, Up the Down Staircase, Waterland, Senior Trip, Race the Sun and many more great movies featured on this list.

TV show

When history teacher Matt Bashir is promoted to Principal of a notoriously violent Boys' school in Sydney's south-west, his radical approach brings him into conflict and leaves his personal life dangerously exposed. But just when he seems to be making progress, a 17-year-old student is found dead on school grounds.

The Unguarded Moment

A high-school music teacher is the victim of a student who writes indecent notes and assaults women.

Up the Down Staircase

Sylvia, a novice schoolteacher, is hired to teach English in a high school, but she’s met with an apathetic faculty, a delinquent student body and an administration that drowns its staff in paperwork. The following days go from bad to worse as Sylvia struggles to reach her most troubled students.

Waterland

The story of a mentally anguished high school history teacher going through a complete reassessment of his life. His method for reassessing his life is to narrate it to his class and interweave in it three generations of his family's history.

Senior Trip

While on detention, a group of misfits and slackers have to write a letter to the President explaining what is wrong with the education system. There is only one problem, the President loves it! Hence, the group must travel to Washington to meet the Main Man.

Race the Sun

A bunch of high school misfits in Hawaii, introduced by their new teacher, attend a science fair in which they draw up inspiration to build their own solar car and win a trip to compete in the 1990 World Solar Challenge in Australia.

Rebound

An acclaimed college hoops coach is demoted to a junior varsity team after a public meltdown.

Rock 'n' Roll High School

A group of rock-music-loving students, with the help of the Ramones, take over their school to combat its newly installed oppressive administration.

Kids in America

Inspired by real events, this ribald comedy pits an unlikely gang of students against their principal after she bars safe-sex activities on campus. Protesting Principal Weller's muzzling of free speech, the teens stage a bold and hilarious rebellion.

Adoration

For his French-class assignment, a high school student weaves his family history in a news story involving terrorism, and goes on to invite an Internet audience in on the resulting controversy.

Assassination of a High School President

After the theft of copies of SAT exams from a principal's office, teenage reporter Bobby Funke sets out to unmask the thief. Bobby prints an article fingering Class President Paul Moore as the thief, shredding the youth's reputation. But as Bobby gets to know Paul's girlfriend, Francesca, he comes to realize he was wrong about Paul, so he sets out to unmask the true culprit.

Big Bully

A writer returns to his hometown where he faces the childhood nemesis whose life he ultimately ruined, only the bully wants to relive their painful past by torturing him once again.

The Breakfast Club

Five high school students from different walks of life endure a Saturday detention under a power-hungry principal. The disparate group includes rebel John, princess Claire, outcast Allison, brainy Brian and Andrew, the jock. Each has a chance to tell his or her story, making the others see them a little differently -- and when the day ends, they question whether school will ever be the same.

The Chocolate War

A surreal portrait of a Catholic Private School and its hierarchy. A new student must submit to the bizarre rituals of his peers and the expectations of the school's administration by selling chocolates.

Prom

At “Prom,” every couple has a story and no two are exactly alike. As the big dance approaches for Nova Prescott, it’s a battle of wills as she finds herself drawn to the guy who gets in the way of her perfect prom. Fellow seniors Mei and Tyler harbor secrets, while others face all the insecurity and anticipation that surrounds one of high school’s most seminal events.

Conrack

A young, white school teacher is assigned to Yamacraw Island, an isolated fishing community off the coast of South Carolina, populated mostly by poor black families. He finds that the basically illiterate, neglected children there know so little of the world outside their island.

A Teacher

A high school teacher in Austin, Texas takes sexual advantage over one of her students. Her life begins to unravel as the details of the relationship are exposed.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

After high school slacker Ferris Bueller successfully fakes an illness in order to skip school for the day, he goes on a series of adventures throughout Chicago with his girlfriend Sloane and best friend Cameron, all the while trying to outwit his wily school principal and fed-up sister.

High School Confidential!

A tough kid comes to a new high school and begins muscling his way into the drug scene. This is a typical morality play of the era, filled with a naive view of drugs, nihilistic beat poetry, and some incredible '50s slang.

Cutting Class

High school student Paula Carson's affections are being sought after by two of her classmates: Dwight, the "bad boy", and Brian, a disturbed young man who has just been released from a mental hospital where he was committed following the suspicious death of his father. Soon after being released, more murders start happening. Is Brian back to his old tricks, or is Dwight just trying to eliminate the competition?

The History Boys

The story of an unruly class of bright, funny history students at a Yorkshire grammar school in pursuit of an undergraduate place at Oxford or Cambridge. Bounced between their maverick English master, a young and shrewd teacher hired to up their test scores, a grossly out-numbered history teacher, and a headmaster obsessed with results, the boys attempt to pass.

Dance of the Dead

With Prom only hours away, the usual suspects of Cosa High (Cheerleaders, geeks, bad boys and the happy-go-lucky student council alike) are preoccupied with the annual rituals of teendom. On the night of the big dance when the dead unexpectedly rise to eat the living, polar opposite groups will be forced to unite in their final chance to save the town from the zombies.

Election

Tracy Flick is running unopposed for this year’s high school student election. But Jim McAllister has a different plan. Partly to establish a more democratic election, and partly to satisfy some deep personal anger toward Tracy, Jim talks football player Paul Metzler to run for president as well.

Detention

A heroic high school teacher leads a band of students trapped in school by violent drug-runners.

Drillbit Taylor

Three kids hire a low-budget bodyguard to protect them from the playground bully, not realising he is just a homeless beggar and petty thief looking for some easy cash.

Elephant

Several ordinary high school students go through their daily routine as two others prepare for something more malevolent.

F

A group of teachers must defend themselves from a gang of murderous kids when their school comes under siege after hours.

Peyton Place

In the outwardly respectable New England community of Peyton Place, shopkeeper Constance McKenzie tries to make up for a past indiscretion -- which resulted in her illegitimate daughter Allison -- by adopting a chaste, prudish attitude towards all things sexual. In spite of herself, Constance can't help but be attracted to handsome new teacher Michael Rossi. Meanwhile, the restless Allison, who'd like to be as footloose and fancy-free as the town's "fast girl" Betty Anderson, falls sincerely in love with mixed-up mama's boy Norman Page.

Mr. Holland's Opus

In 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose.

Teaching Mrs. Tingle

A bright high-school senior has her impending status as valedictorian jeopardized when her bitter history teacher, Mrs. Tingle, gives her a poor grade on a project. When an attempt to get ahead in Mrs. Tingle's class goes awry, mayhem ensues and friendships, loyalties and trust are tested by the teacher's intricate mind-games.

There Goes My Baby

It's the summer of 1965, and the members of the graduating class of upscale Westwood High are eager to reinvent themselves. Valedictorian Mary Beth wants to attend a liberal university. Surfer bum Stick plans to enlist to fight in Vietnam. Calvin lives in the poor Watts section of Los Angeles, which is slowly erupting in violence. As the summer nights grow long, they'll all be forced to make decisions that will affect the rest of their lives.

Permanent Record

David Sinclair seems to have everything going for him: he's smart, musically talented, and very successful. To top off his senior year in high school, his band is trying to get a recording session. Therefore, David's suicide leaves everyone, especially his best friend and bandmate, Chris, with a lot of questions.

Monster Pies

Mike has felt alienated and alone for as long as he can remember, until a new boy arrives at his school - awakening feelings and a world of possibilities he'd never before dared to dream of.

Puberty Blues

Two teenage surf chicks from the southern suburbs of Sydney ingratiate themselves with a new group of boys.

That's What I Am

A coming-of-age story that follows 12-year-old Andy Nichol, a bright student who, like most kids his age, will do anything to avoid conflict for fear of suffering overwhelming ridicule and punishment from his junior high school peers.

Hunky Dory

Musical film about the trials and tribulations of an idealistic drama teacher as she tries to put on the end of year show.

Adventures in Public School

A socially awkward home-schooled kid forces his way into public-school against his suffocating but loving mother's wishes.

Spork

A frizzy-haired, pink-cheeked outcast named Spork navigates her way through the annals of junior high.

Pretty Persuasion

A 15-year-old girl incites chaos among her friends and a media frenzy when she accuses her drama teacher of sexual harassment.

Night of the Dribbler

The Watergate Plumbers, a poorly-performing college basketball team, lose their best players one by one to death and dismemberment at the hands of a mysterious masked stalker.

Bisbee '17

It’s 2017 in Bisbee, Arizona, an old copper-mining town just miles from the Mexican border. The town’s close-knit community prepares to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Bisbee’s darkest hour: the infamous Bisbee Deportation of 1917, during which 1,200 striking miners were violently taken from their homes, banished to the middle of the desert, and left to die. Townspeople confront this violent, misunderstood past by staging dramatic recreations of the escalating strike. These dramatized scenes are based on subjective versions of the story and “directed,” in a sense, by residents with conflicting views of the event. Deeply personal segments torn from family history build toward a massive restaging of the deportation itself on the exact day of its 100th anniversary.

Class of 1999 II: The Substitute

In the original movie, the cyborg-teachers were all destroyed. Well that's what we thought, but there's one more rogue military robot out there determined to clean up the education system.

Harlot

Open and uninhibited Mary convinces her uptight goody-goody two shoes best friend Melody to loosen up and dive into an exciting and eye-opening new world of unbridled sexual experimentation.

High School High

Richard Clark has just left the well-known Wellington Academy to teach at Marion Barry High School. Now, he will try to inspire the D-average students into making good grades and try to woo a fellow teacher.

Daria in 'Is It College Yet?'

All vile things must come to an end, and for Daria Morgendorffer that means it's time to look beyond high school to college. Our little girl has grown up so fast. It's time for higher learning, lowered expectations, and a heavy dose of sarcasm. Life can't suck more after high school, can it?

Lambada

Kevin Laird is a Beverly Hills school teacher by day and a mystery man by night. Using his lambada dance moves to first earn the kid's respect and acceptance, Kevin then teaches them academics. But when a jealous student exposes Kevin's double life, his two worlds collide, threatening his job and reputation.

Lean On Me

When principal Joe Clark takes over decaying Eastside High School, he's faced with students wearing gang colors and graffiti-covered walls. Determined to do anything he must to turn the school around, he expels suspected drug dealers, padlocks doors and demands effort and results from students, staff and parents. Autocratic to a fault, this real-life educator put it all on the line.

The Principal

Burglary. Drugs. Assault. Rape. The students at Brandel High are more than new Principal Rick Latimer bargained for. Gangs fight to control the school using knives - even guns - when they have to. When Latimer and the head of security try to clean up the school and stop the narcotics trade, they run up against a teenage mafia. A violent confrontation on the campus leads to a deadly showdown with the drug dealer's gang, and one last chance for Latimer to save his career... and his life.

Pump Up the Volume

Mark Hunter, a lonely high school student, uses his shortwave radio to moonlight as the popular pirate DJ "Hard Harry." When his show gets blamed for a teen committing suicide, the students clash with high school faculty and the authorities.

Hurricane Season

Based on true events amid the wreckage and chaos dealt by Hurricane Katrina; one basketball coach in Marrero, Louisiana just will not give up. Coach Al Collins, gathers other players from hard-hit schools and builds a team actually worthy enough to go to the state playoffs.

Ruby Bridges

When six-year-old Ruby Bridges is chosen to be the first African-American to integrate her local elementary school, she is subjected to the true ugliness of racism for the first time.

Summer School

A high-school gym teacher has big plans for the summer, but is forced to cancel them to teach a "bonehead" English class for misfit goof-off students. Fortunately, his unconventional brand of teaching fun field trips begins to connect with them, and even inspires ardor in some.

Teacher of the Year

Surrounded by the eccentric faculty of Truman High School, Mitch Carter wins the California Teacher of the Year award and immediately receives a tempting offer that may force him to leave his job.

Three O'Clock High

Nerdy high schooler Jerry Mitchell is assigned to write an article for the school paper about the infamous new delinquent transfer student, Buddy Revell. When Jerry accidentally invades Buddy's personal space and touches him, Buddy challenges Jerry to an afterschool fight in the parking lot, which Jerry tries to avoid at all costs.

Radio

High school football coach, Harold Jones befriends Radio, a mentally-challenged man who becomes a student at T.L. Hanna High School in Anderson, South Carolina. Their friendship extends over several decades, where Radio transforms from a shy, tormented man into an inspiration to his community.

1 Mile To You

After a teenager's friends die in an accident, he finds running allows him to remember them perfectly. Running, however, also brings him notoriety. He is caught between keeping the past alive and making new memories in the present.

Our Miss Brooks

The big-screen translation of the successful television show of the 1950's. Arden stars as Connie Brooks, wisecracking English teacher at Madison High School, still hoping to tie the knot with shy biology teacher Philip Boynton (Robert Rockwell).

That Hagen Girl

Mary Hagen lives in a small town in Ohio and goes to Jordon Junior College. For years, there has been whispers, rumors and gossip about who are her real parents. When Tom Bates returns to town, he takes over the house and practice that Judge Merrivale left him when he died. As Tom has been away a number of years, this leads to more gossip and Mary believes that he is her father. The popular and rich Ken loves Mary, but his family and friends constantly remind him that she is 'not one of us'. Julia, a teacher at school encourages Mary but Mary cannot get a break in anything she does, or is accused of doing. Tom knows the answer to her true identity, and he is silent.

The Secret Life of Girls

15-year-old Natalie, confused to begin with, finds out about her father's affair with one of his students. Refusing to simply stand by and watch her family disintegrate, Natalie takes it upon herself to expose the problem, and in doing so calls into question the family's penchant for denial.

Prom Night in Mississippi

A high school in a small-town in Mississippi prepares for its first integrated senior prom.

Love Is Strange

After 39 years together, Ben and George finally tie the knot, but George loses his job as a result, and the newlyweds must sell their New York apartment and live apart, relying on friends and family to make ends meet.

Lower Learning

Barry Goldwater Elementary is on the brink of collapse: the lowest test scores in the state, teachers who are either drunk or having sex on school grounds, and a principal who extorts money from parents. It's up to Tom, the down-on-his-luck vice-principal, to rally the lazy teachers, expose the principal's corruption, and turn the school around before an end of the day board decision.

Full of It

A teenager tells outrageous lies at his new high school, only to have them suddenly come true.

New Port South

A group of teenagers wish to rebel against the administrators and teachers (the system) in their suburban Chicago high school called New Port South

Fast Talking

A bright young teenager from a broken home uses his quick wits and glib tongue to get out of trouble - but they also get him into it.

A Resurrection

A down to earth school psychologist tries to help a mentally ill student who actually believes his brother is coming back from the grave for revenge on the students who killed him.

Graduation Day

A masked killer begins murdering students on the school track team after a track runner dies upon completion of a 30 second 200-meter race.

The Dirties

The line between reality and fiction starts to blur when two best friends start making a movie about getting revenge on bullies.

Terri

Terri, a pajama-clad, disaffected high school student learns how to engage the world with the help of Mr. Fitzgerald, his assistant principal.

Teacher

A high school English teacher goes to disturbing lengths to protect his favorite students from bullies, and challenge the power of a wealthy patron within the community.

Halls of Anger

An all-black inner city school has to become an integrated school. Few dozen white kids are transfered there, but the black students are aggressively opposed to this. The school then approaches a tough black teacher for help.

The Explosive Generation

Peter Gifford is a likable, dedicated schoolteacher that teaches a senior life skills class. When student Janet Sommers brings up the topic of sex and dating, he asks students to write questions on the topic, and will cover them in the next class. The parents get wind of what Gifford is about to do, notify the principal, and he warns Peter not to read the questions in class. Gifford decides to go against this and is suspended. The whole student body protests, and the administration gets worried on what to do.

#SquadGoals

Ambitious high school senior Samantha Hodges is a serious journalist, both for the school paper and for the yearbook, but she's just as serious about her friends, Nate, Gillian, and Rudy, all of whom are vying with her for a full-ride local scholarship to college. Very close to her mother, Emily, who is the school's guidance counselor, Samantha finds her reporting taking an investigative turn when two of her classmates--and contenders for the scholarship--are murdered.

Because of Gracia

Two High School Couples explore Friendship and dating along dissimiliar lines, leading to Courage and Transformation for one teen and a personal crisis for Another.

Bloody Homecoming

Three years after a tragic accident leaves a student dead at the annual Homecoming dance, a group of senior friends anxious about the return of Homecoming Night to their sleepy Southern town find themselves visited by a deadly presence from their past in the dark and desolate halls of their very own high school.

The Frightening

Eighteen year-old Corey Peterson and his mother move to a small town due to a trauma in their past. On Corey's first day at Hallows End High School, he's approached by Mason, also new in town, who tells him about the death of his friend at the school and advises Corey to stay away from the wrestler Perry and his gang. When two other students vanish, Corey decides to talk to Principal Rizcheck, who pays no attention to him. Corey and Mason investigate the secret about the school and expose the dark truth about Hallows End and the missing students.

Lesson Plan

"Lesson Plan" is a documentary film about The Third Wave (aka The Wave & Die Welle) classroom experiment, as told by the original students and teacher Ron Jones.

American Teacher

As the debate over the state of America's public school system rages on, one thing everyone agrees on is the need for great teachers. Yet, while research proves that teachers are the most important school factor in a child's future success, America's teachers are so woefully underpaid that almost a third must divide their time between a second job in order to make a living. Chronicling the stories of four teachers in different areas of the country, American Teacher reveals the frustrating realities of today's educators, the difficulty of attracting talented new teachers, and why so many of our best teachers feel forced to leave the profession altogether. But this wake-up call to our system's failings also looks at possibilities for reform. Can we re-value teaching in the United States and turn it into a prestigious, financially attractive and competitive profession? With almost half of American teachers leaving the field in the next five years, now is the time to find out.

High School U.S.A.

Set in a senior high school class, J.J. pursues the girlfriend of a rival from a higher clique which culminates in a race at the end of the movie between the two rivals in this light comedy.

For My Daughter's Honor

Fourteen-year-old high school student, Amy Dustin, becomes an object of romantic affection to the school's biology teacher and football coach, Pete Nash. They take a sudden interest in each other, sending each other notes and talking on the telephone. Although Pete has a family, the two begin a secret relationship. People then begin to suspect that Pete and Amy are having an affair.

Bloodmoon

In the small town of Coopers Bay, there are two high schools situated right next to each other. There’s Winchester, an all boys comprehensive and St Elizabeth’s, a girl’s only Catholic faculty. They are separated by woodland where pupils from both can meet and engage the things that attract the attention of maniac killers. It’s not surprising then that an unseen one begins murdering the youngsters as they fornicate, strangling them with a length of barbed wire before removing their eyes and burying them under the soil. Mary, the daughter of a Hollywood movie actress, becomes involved when the killer targets her and Kevin, her boyfriend. But who is this twisted psychopath and why does he want to kill all the kids?

Plainsong

Tom Guthrie, a high school history teacher, is faced with raising two young sons after his wife leaves him. Maggie Jones, a fellow teacher, tries to provide comfort and support.

There Was a Little Boy

Julie and Gregg are about to become parents again, but they feel conflicted since their first child was kidnapped and never seen again. But the couple soon faces an even bigger shock. Julie's new bad-boy (really bad-boy) student may actually be her long-lost son! Based on Claire R. Jacobs's book

The Wrong Cheer Captain

Kate begins to suspect that Anna, the newly appointed captain of her cheer squad, is responsible for the death of Emma, but while Kate tries to find the truth, Anna is out to destroy her life.

Walkout

Walkout is the true story of a young Mexican American high school teacher, Sal Castro. He mentors a group of students in East Los Angeles, when the students decide to stage a peaceful walkout to protest the injustices of the public school system. Set against the background of the civil rights movement of 1968, it is a story of courage and the fight for justice and empowerment.

Gryphon

When Rickey and his friends put a snake in the desk of the new substitute teacher, to their surprise, she lovingly picks it up and puts it around her neck. Soon her strange stories of the wonders and beauty of the world around them helps them to see there is more to life than ever imagined.

The Mighty Pawns

Inner city kids are given new direction when they are convinced to join the school chess team.

Monster High: Haunted

Lurk what's waiting for the Monster High ghouls when they bring their killer fashion to the howlways of the spooktacular Haunted High! When the ghouls of Monster High follow Spectra Vondergeist one day, they discover a creeperiffic Ghost World with an all-spirit school. But their scary-cute student bodies are hardly welcome with the very strict Principal Revenant, and she punishes Spectra with frightful detention chains that prevent her from re-joining Monster High. Now, it's up to the imperfectly perfect friends to take on ghostly forms in order to save one of their own from disappearing forever!

School of Rock

Fired from his band and hard up for cash, guitarist and vocalist Dewey Finn finagles his way into a job as a fifth-grade substitute teacher at a private school, where he secretly begins teaching his students the finer points of rock 'n' roll. The school's hard-nosed principal is rightly suspicious of Finn's activities. But Finn's roommate remains in the dark about what he's doing.

Crash Course

Some students taking driver's ed during the summer. Among the students is Riko, a cocky guy; Chad, a guy from a privileged background, who's terrified to get behind the wheel; Vanessa, who's over protective mom who wouldn't allow her to take the course, who went behind her back; and Maria, a spoiled foreign student. Now the principal wants the students to pass so he tells the instructor, who's still not over his wife leaving and is not exactly up to the task, that it's important for the students to pass so he brought in a special instructor, who's very tough. And the principal also tells one of his teachers to let, one of the students Maslanski who's the school football star, pass the test he failed so that he can concentrate on driver's ed. But the teacher, seeing this as an opportunity to expose the principal as not doing his job and thus paving the way for him to be the new principal, makes Maslanski take a make up test

Radical

In a Mexican border town plagued by neglect, corruption, and violence, a frustrated teacher tries a radical new method to break through his students’ apathy and unlock their curiosity, their potential… and maybe even their genius. Based on a true story.

Critical Thinking

Based on a true story from 1998, five Latino and Black teenagers from the toughest underserved ghetto in Miami fight their way into the National Chess Championship under the guidance of their unconventional but inspirational teacher.

The Violation of Sarah McDavid

Sarah McDavid, an idealistic young teacher, takes a job in a rough high school where she is eventually attacked and raped in her classroom after school hours and decides to buck the school system in an attempt to make schools safer for students and teachers alike, against the advice of the school's principal, Dr. Keys, who tries to gloss over the hazardous conditions and the incident itself to avoid bad publicity and decreased enrollment.

A Christmas Break

Middle school principal Addison Tate wants this Christmas to be special for her kids especially since the School Board has decided that it will be the last as the school will be closing. When Addison invites Hollywood actor Dylan Davidson, a former alumni and old flame, home to reconnect with his roots, sparks fly, uniting the two to save the school from closing right before Christmas Eve.

The Music Teacher

Music Teacher revolves around Alyson Daley (Potts), a high school music teacher who is on the brink of losing her beloved school music program because of district budget cuts. In an effort to spare the program, Daley's former students band together to stage a musical to raise money to keep the program alive.

Knights of Swing

Set in 1947, Knights of Swing is a feature film that chronicles a group of young jazz musicians whose dream is to form a “really swingin’ Big Band”. Unfortunately, things prove much more complicated when the community objects to the diversity of the band. Alliances form, and lines are drawn. What follows is soul searching, uplifting, and through music, our story illuminates forgiveness, healing and unconditional love.

Notes from Dad

Trumpet player Roy Allen starts anew as a music teacher in a school full of kids with little exposure to music. Roy connects with a talented virtuoso in need of a father figure. Through the journey of launching a school band and learning to reach kids on their own terms, Nate reconnects with his own estranged son, becoming the father he always wanted to be.

Haunted High

A group of students are trapped at a school after a time capsule from the 1950's is cracked open by an earthquake. The students soon realize that ghostly spirits escaped from the time capsule, and possessed the principal and three other teachers.

Miller's Girl

A talented young writer embarks on a creative odyssey when her teacher assigns a project that entangles them both in an increasingly complex web.

Save the Last Dance 2

Sara joins Julliard in New York to fulfill her and her mother's dream of becoming the Prima ballerina of the school. She befriends her roommates, Zoe and Miles, who teach hip-hop classes. She has ballet classes with the rigid and famous Monique Delacroix that she idolizes - Monique requires full commitment, discipline and hard work from her students. When Miles, who is a composer, invites Sara to help him compose the music for the dance choreography Sara's passion for hip-hop is sparked and she also falls in love with Miles. When she is assigned to perform Giselle in an important event, she feels divided between the technique of the ballet and the creative work offered by Miles.

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