Our teacher (P. Liska) in question leaves his prestigious job at an equally prestigious school in Prague to assume a far more mundane position in the Czech country-side. He looks lost, bewildered and reticent, speaking only when absolutely necessary. Is he hiding something, fearful of past skeletons in his closet coming to the forefront to haunt him mercilessly?He settles in with a small farm family consisting of a woman and her son, who have their own fair share of past trials and tribulations unto themselves. An old mate of the "teach" (our title teacher) from the city finds his way out into the country to find our protagonist teacher and sparks immediately fly. Our "teach" has suppressed his homosexual orientation to all in the countryside and yet the mate from Prague, who was the teacher's former lover, is hell-bent on renewing their affair and is very demonstrative about it. "Teach" wants no part in it, as he wants a relationship based on love, not lust.Without telling too much more of the story line, suffice it to say that the old skeletons to which I earlier referred are brought to the forefront in a very skillfully paced manner by the director B. Slama. Teach's so-called search for love degenerates temporarily into deriving sexual satisfaction from the young son on the farm. The unsolicited advances by "teach" are strongly and virulently rejected by the young boy who now hates the new guest teacher. Now the teacher, the mother and her son have to deal with this new trauma, or closet skeleton, if you will, in addition to all their prior baneful experiences.Just how all these prior and new experiences will be met and subsequently dealt with and possibly sorted out lies in the hands of our skillful director and cast. What they do and how this is accomplished results in a tender yet forcefully portrayed set of scenes, where each of our protagonists has to deal honestly and openly with their strengths as well as their weaknesses and honestly open up to one another. What you may deduce from the movie's ending is that it is not an ending at all, but in fact a beginning, a Genesis, if you will!!

It is somewhat puzzling to see a teacher from a big city go to a rural community in the Czech Republic. After all, the attractions of Prague being exchanged, perhaps, for the serenity of a simple life, might not be a fair exchange. Yet, this taciturn man gives us the idea he is hiding from something, or someone. The life he can expect among the country folks betrays his intelligence. The thirtysomething teacher strikes a good chord among the young children in his classes. His approach is different from what they probably have been exposed to, before his arrival. Life in that rural community does not offer him much in the way of intellectual reward, yet he seems to be at peace with himself.When he meets the lady farmer Marie, the teacher has been sleeping on a pile of the hay she, and her son, Lada, are loading into their cart to bring back to their barn. This woman, a widow, makes a sexual advance to the teacher, something that he stops. Marie's reasoning is that perhaps she is older and this man is not interested. In reality, the teacher has a dark secret. He is a homosexual. The teacher is an honest man who had come out to his parents. They had no problem with their son's sexual preference.The teacher, who watches Lada making out with Beruska, his girlfriend, lusts after the teenager, but being aware of his situation, he keeps away. In fact, Lada counts on the teacher to tutor him for his math exam. During a drinking session, the teacher takes Lada to his place and thinking the boy is not aware, or perhaps getting the wrong signal, he only contributes to having Lada repulsed by his advance as he runs away in horror. When he sees Marie, who knows about the teacher's indiscretion, he believes he must leave the school because the shame of having blown his own cover. But he does not count in being forgiven by the mother, and the school principal, whose attitude is plain understanding.A sensitive film written and directed by Bohdan Slama. The film deals with an issue that in other countries could had been interpreted as an outrage. In fact, most of the fears in our country are about the sexual orientation of the ones in charge of innocent children, when even for most gays in those positions, the mere thought of abusing a child is as repugnant as the population, at best. This teacher makes the mistake of thinking Lada, being drunk, will not even be aware of his sexual overture, but he is horrified by the realization of how his newly found peace in the country comes crashing down on him.Pavel Liska makes an impression as the teacher. He underplays his role giving an understated performance. Zuzana Bydzovska makes an excellent contribution to the film with her Marie. Divis Marek's cinematography captures the idyllic countryside in all its glory. The incidental music is by Vladimir Godar.

Bohdan Sláma wrote and directed this sensitive and tender story about public versus private views of sexuality in the Czech Republic: his gifts as an artist of cinema are formidable. He knows how to tell a story, how to create a fascinating group of characters that with little dialogue speak loudly about human rights and understanding of differences.THE COOUNTRY TEACHER ('Venkovský ucitel') opens with a young teacher from Prague who has joined the faculty of a small country school - an environment completely at odds with the rush and high life of the city. Petr (Pavel Liska) is a quiet, withdrawn, seemingly depressed young man who immediately connects with the students in his Ntural History class. The students and community accept this new gift to education in the provinces but wonder why such a fine teacher would leave Prague. Petr finds housing in a curtained room of a meager household and begins his quiet cloistered life away from what seems to be a traumatic escape from his home in Prague. We soon learn that in Prague, Petr had problems with a relationship and his fellow teacher mother cannot understand why Petr cannot find happiness as a normal married male. He confesses to her that he is gay and his mother (and elusive father) begin to understand why Petr 'escaped'. Back in his new country home Petr makes friends with a single mother Marie (Zuzana Bydzovská) who serves as both mother and father to her 17 year old son Lada (Ladislav Sedivý), a funky lad in love with a girlfriend whom he sees as his intellectual superior. Marie hopes to attract Petr but when overtures are ignored she instead engages Petr to tutor Lada. All goes well until Petr's ex partner (Marek Daniel) visits and disrupts the environment of Petr's closeted safe life. As Petr and Lada grow in their relationship as tutor and pupil, Lada discovers he can indeed succeed academically. After a night wen the two drink too much an incident occurs that unveils Pter's growing love for Lada and Lada leaves in disgust. The world explodes for Petr but gradually his honesty as presented first to Marie and then to his faculty begins a course of healing that leads to a touching closure of the story.The cast is first rate and capably convey the spectrum of emotions that surround this little tale of discovery. How Bohdan Sláma is able to keep his story aligned in transferring between Prague and the little county province demonstrates a sensitivity to human interaction that is equal to the finest writers and directors. In Czech with English subtitles.Grady Harp

So I've just seen the movie and am really amazed. Slama has done it again. I am Czech and I must admit that I am very displeased with Czech cinematography of the last decade. Czech producers and directors make the same rubbish over and over again. I focus only on Slama as in my opinion he is the only exception. He proved himself to be the best we have now.I absolutely loved his previous movie Stesti and I had very high anticipation concerning his new one - Venkovsky ucitel - The Country Teacher. And my expectations were fulfilled.The movie is in some way similar to the previous one, not only in the choice of actors but also in the structure. The movie is pure drama around one man, but in fact there are three main characters and minor ones. Slama is very good in building the scenes and describing the characters. He introduces the key ones, shows us the surroundings and than he starts to develop the story he wants. He cultivates the characters and plays with the theme of the picture.I don't want to go into details about the story. Watch for yourself, it 's very strong and very touching.Throughout the whole movie I was amazed (again) by Slama's very subtle but in a way strong directing. Also the cinematography is perfect. All the actors did a great job and I haven't seen such good performances for a long time (certainly not in Czech movies). All in all I was very impressed by the story, acting and directing. As far as I am concerned - Slama is still on the top.If nevertheless should I say something negative I would have probably one thing - in the first half, maybe third, of the movie the editing seemed to me somehow "discontinuous". Like some cuts were a little bit too rash. But it was just my little feeling. I definitely recommend this movie. Very good and deep drama and top- notch movie making.