Leida Laius (26 March 1923, in Horoshevo, Yamburgsky Uyezd, Russia – 6 April 1996, in Tallinn) was an Estonian film director.

Leida Laius was born into a wealthy farming family and grew up in Jamburg, later renamed Kingissep, near Saint Petersburg.

He was deported to a labor camp as a kulak during the Stalin era in the late 1930s and executed there as part of the so-called Great Purge.

[2] Leida Laius volunteered for the Red Army during World War II and served as a nurse in the field hospital for the lightly wounded No.

Games for Schoolchildren is a coming-of-age drama in which the main character Mari has to assert her place among her peers in a children's home and experiences her first love.

The film was cast exclusively with non-professional actors and actresses and partly shot on original locations with a hand-held camera, which seems modern from today's perspective.

However, having grown up in an orphanage herself, she eventually has to face the harsh reality that her desire makes not for the best life choice for her son.

On the occasion of her 100th birthday in 2023, an extensive retrospective of Leida Laius' life and work was held in Tallinn and Tartu, including film screenings, discussion events and exhibitions of set photographs from the Estonian National Archives' collection in the Elektriteatri and Sõprus cinemas.

In this context, a monument dedicated to her and created by the sculptor Flo Kasearus was unveiled in Lembitu Park in Tallinn on March 26, 2023.