The Country Teacher (2008) (TIFF08)
Venkovský ucitel (2008, written and directed by Bohdan Sláma) is a slow-paced, beautifully shot story of a lonely teacher who leaves his job in Prague to teach out in the Czech countryside. We ask ourselves the obvious questions: Why did he leave the city? Why is he so sad? Why was this so predictable? Did I really just see a calf being pulled out of a cow?
There was one thing that I absolutely loved about this film: almost every scene was composed of one single take. The camera and actors were choreographed with such great precision that it took a couple of scenes for me to notice that there were no cuts. I love that stuff!
I enjoyed it enough, but the story didn’t blow me away and I didn’t feel that there was a major climax. The characters were definitely more than two-dimensional but not really interesting or memorable enough. I felt that some of the story was way too predictable, and I didn’t think that this did any good as far as breaking gay stereotypes goes. Still, the photography techniques and beautiful scenery made this a pleasant enough viewing experience.
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During the Q & A portion of this film at TIFF, a woman blasted the director (who himself, appeared to have pedophile or bestiality tendencies) for creating yet another film which portrays teachers as people who have an uncontrollable urge to take advantage of their students. It was kind of funny to see a director get torn into at the screening of his own film, but I felt bad for the guy…even if he was a bit of a weirdo.
Honestly, I think this lady was just offended by the calf birthing scenes…