Main Program > Feature films

The Country Teacher

THE COUNTRY TEACHER / Venkovský ucitel

Czech Republic, France, Germany, 2008., 120’

Director

Bohdan Sláma

Cast

Pavel Liska, Zuzana Bydzovská, Ladislav Sedivý

Awards

Cottbus Film Festival of Young East European Cinema 2008.- Audience award

A gifted young teacher takes a job teaching natural sciences at a grammar school in the country. Here he makes the acquaintance of a woman and her troubled 17-year old son. The teacher has no romantic interest in the woman but they quickly form a strong friendship. When the teacher’s ex-boyfriend comes to visit from the city, he quickly realizes that nobody in the village knows that the teacher is gay and harbors a secret affection for the teenage boy. His jealous actions set in motion a series of events that will test the inner strength and compassion of the teacher, the woman and her son to a breaking point.

Bohdan Sláma was born in 1967 in Czech Republic, he studied feature film directing at Charles University's film school FAMU. His student film,“Garden of Paradise“, won a number of prizes at student film festivals and his graduate film, White Acacias was presented theatrically within the country. His debut feature, „Wild Bees“, won a Golden Tiger in Rotterdam in 2002. His follow-up feature, „Something Like Happiness“, premiered internationally in 2005 at the Donostia San Sebastian, winning both the Main Prize and Best Actress Award.