Country: Czech Republic/Germany/ France
Year: 2008
Language: Czech
Runtime: 113 minutes
Format: Colour/35mm
Bohdan Sláma's exquisite film follows the tender ties that form between a young, gay teacher, a lonely widow and her teenaged son in a small Czech town riddled with homophobia.
When a young natural sciences teacher (Pavel Liška) turns down a prestigious school in Prague to work in the backwaters of a remote Czech village, it seems like an odd choice, but he's looking for the space and quiet that he thinks only the country can afford. Once settled, he meets Marie (Zuzana Bydžovská), a local widow whose husband left her to work their farm and raise an adolescent son (Ladislav Šedivý). They form a firm friendship – one she'd like to take further. What Marie does not realize is that the teacher has actually left Prague to escape both a former lover and the confusion he feels about his own sexuality. It is a reality he is forced to confront, however, when his ex-boyfriend arrives in town, upsetting the tenuous love triangle that has formed between Marie, the teacher and her insolent son.
The Country Teacher is about people who long for love but are too afraid to seek it out or give in to it. It is a simple premise, and the uniqueness of Sláma's treatment – the rural Czech setting, the bucolic mood and the unnerving proposition that his character is a self-hating homosexual – breathe real intrigue and compassion into the story. Sláma does not shy away from uncomfortable facts, and his characters are not the rowdy fellows usually found in Czech cinema. He fills his frames instead with melancholy folk who drown their boredom in bottomless bottles. Liška is one of the Czech Republic's finest working actors and Bydžovská is a renowned theatre performer. Crafted through Sláma's keenly naturalistic eye, The Country Teacher is a poignant and thoughtful work of cinema.
Bohdan Sláma was born in Opava, Czech Republic. He studied at the Film and Television School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague, where he directed the short film Garden of Eden (94) and the feature White Accacias (96). He has also directed the features Wild Bees (01), Something Like Happiness (05), which screened at the Festival, and The Country Teacher (08).
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上星期IT説他多了張電影節的戲票要我和他一起看，不知是什麼就去了。
很好看，真的很好看。
要算是看過有關這類題材的所有電影作品中，吾最喜歡的一齣。
無奈，往往可以令一個人不停地前思後想，最後可以陷入憔緒不堪的地歩，但背後並不一定有一條很sad的主線。戲中正正表現出各個角色互相之間不同感情關係所遭遇到的無奈。很有感覺。
唔...下一歩就是要去google一下這個捷克導演之其他作品！
