The Country Teacher (Bohdan Slama,2008):Czech Republic

Reviewed by Aleksandra Mraovic. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

During the meeting with Roger Durling, he mentioned a couple of films from The Santa Barbara Film Festival that he thought were good. The Country Teacher and Landscape no. 2 were the main movies. I went to see The Country Teacher (Venkovský ucitel), a movie from Czech Republic. It was a totally different story than what you expect it to be. The movie was interesting to watch but a little bit too gloomy for my taste.

The main actor in the movie is the teacher Pavel who moves from Prague to a small town in the country to start a new life and escape from old relationships and problems. He is a really reserved person and he keeps to himself a lot. He gets to know the people in the town and starts to feel at home. Through the movie he reveals that he is gay but he keeps it a secret from everybody else in the town. We also get to see that he is not the only one that has problems in his life. Everybody has something they are hiding and trying to deal with. During the movie, he falls in love with a boy that doesn’t share his feelings. After an incident, he is forced to reveal who he is and finds out that people are not as judgmental as he thinks they are. “The truth set him free” and people accepted him for who he is.

Even though I felt that the movie was a little bit gloomy I have to admit that the director did a very good job. You can see how everything is directed in details and everything falls in to place at the end. The movie has a lot deeper message than just being gay and accepted. The movie is also about feelings and knowing how to control them. Being satisfied with who you are and having more trust in other people.

Even though the movie was a bit long and gloomy there is always something keeping you interested and the movie is really unpredictable. Definitely a movie you should see.