A Country Teacher

With his third feature film, the Czech director Bohdan Slama (Tiger Award for Wild Bees, 2002) manifests his artistic and creative maturity. A Country Teacher is not only the best Czech film of the year but also confirms the director’s status as a representative of the modern Czech cinema auteur.
Like all of his previous films, A Country Teacher is based on the director’s original script, telling the story of a teacher from Prague (Slama’s much-favoured actor Pavel Liska) who decides to leave the capital and work in a southern Czech Nowheresville. In search of a peaceful life and his own (sexual) identity, the teacher leaves not only the city life but also his ex-lover behind. Gradually, he settles down in the place and gets to know his fellow-villagers, the most significant of whom is the peculiar farm woman Marie (Zuzana Bydzovska) and her teenage son Lada. The meeting of the three is significant for all of them, as each of them is searching and hopes for love and attention, but further developments turn in an unexpected direction.
Next to superb acting, the film excels from the formal point of view, with impressive long takes and varying camera angles of Slama’s devoted collaborator, the photography director Divis Marek, as well as a sensitive use of music. (LC)