...........................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA...and ORLANDO, FL Ahhh! The joys of the simple life....Yes, go hand-in-hand with the joys of a simple movie! Watching films from MANY different countries is an absolutely enthralling endeavor! Each nation's films tend to exhibit a peculiar cultural signature spin, that is a delightfully intriguing puzzle, waiting to be deciphered and savored. An appetite for Czech films is, however, undoubtedly an acquired taste.Let me share some of the things that made TEACHER such a cinematic plum. Very In-Your-Face, but without ever trying in the least to be, is the physical appearance of the actors themselves. WOW! Talk about the antithesis incarnate of the 2 hours per day at the gym, capped-teeth-multiple-plastic- surgery-and-hair-implant, monthly-Botox-injections "LOOK" that seems to be practically the norm in Hollywood...This cast looks like they were sent from "Real-People'R'US", after dropping out of their weekly ReHab meetings!Also, there were a couple moments in the film where I began feeling somewhat uncomfortable with the direction the movie began to go in, but before this discomfort escalated into something more serious, the movie veered off in a pleasantly unexpected direction! No formulaic Hollywood fluff, here...NO Siree, Bob! Two cultural notes: Boy, these Czechs sure are at ease with nudity! People running around nude in the house, Hey, doesn't raise an eyebrow! Also, people are ever so cooperative with official government policy! Government says "No more discrimination against gays in the workplace!" and its: "DAH! Dee government says vee must do dis, so vee are on board...OK!" One pleasant and unexpected surprise...The Czech folk(?)music! Very soothing and haunting melodies. I'll have to ask some of my Czech students to fill me in! Be sure not to miss it! Recommended by a Friend...8* STARS*....ENJOY/DISFRUTELA! Any comments, questions or observations, in English or Español, are most welcome!

Save yourself time and watch "Something like happiness" one more time to enjoy work of director. Story is weak and unreal: Closet gay guy comes to teach in village, abuses young boy and his mom saves him, after he tries to commit suicide on her field where she feeds cows every day? And after puke and glass of water he is OK to break stones. After some difficulties, whatever they were, young boy comes back home and birth of calf in which all three of them assist make them to forgive and they live happily ever-after...widowed mother, guy gay and abused boy. Oh...and we know that it is straightforward movie because we saw a scene with puke-cleaning so it is clear that director does not embellish the truth? Oh, give me a break. The only thing I liked was a music, wonderful one.

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.

Atmospheric and likable and engaging. Non-standard characters and a rural environment strangely reminiscent of my childhood in 1970s West Germany. Are there still houses in the Czech Republic that have no indoor plumbing? The film makes us believe so. A few post- modernist monikers, such as cellphones, computers, and the PET bottle from which the peasant woman drinks her home-made cider cannot prevent the bad guy's convertible from looking just outlandish, like a UFO on wheels. And yet there is one thing about the plot that worries me. What if the teacher were straight and the student he molested were a female? Would it still be acceptable by the (double) standards of 21st-century political correctness if the victim's mother insisted on her daughter to forgive the molester? I doubt it and imagine a public outcry not only from the feminist side. The gay rapist may be forgiven, the straight one may not. We have come a long way. The Czechs even more so.