SYNOPSICS
Ucitelka (2016) is a Slovak movie. Jan Hrebejk has directed this movie. Zuzana Mauréry,Zuzana Konecná,Csongor Kassai,Tamara Fischer are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2016. Ucitelka (2016) is considered one of the best Comedy,Drama movie in India and around the world.
Since the arrival of the new teacher, Maria Drazdechova, to a Bratislava suburban school in the year of 1983, life has turned upside down for students and parents. The teacher's corrupted behavior and one of the students' suicide attempt that could be related to that matter, makes the school Principal call the students' parents for an urgent meeting that will suddenly put the future of all the families at stake. They are asked to sign a petition to move Miss Drazdechova out of the school. The teacher's high connections within the Communist Party makes everyone feel threatened, but at this point they have no choice but to make a decision: will they dare to go against Miss Drazdechova and stand up for what they believe in at any risk, or will they just remain silent and let things be?
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Ucitelka (2016) Reviews
Demonstrating influence of Communist Party in the 80-ies, with corruption and power abuse as main issues. Leaves us wondering whether it really has disappeared in modern times
Saw this at the Leiden International Film Festival 2016. The exposition of characters is very original, but it confused me in the beginning and made me wonder where the story was heading. The following may serve as heads up for subsequent viewers. In alternating short scenes, we observe a school building at daylight with students, and the same building at night with parents inside. In hindsight, we see a meeting of parents as the main course, and it is precisely that meeting that carries the story line. The parallel illustrations with scenes in and out of school are necessary to bring the core message home. Several movies from former communist countries drive the message home that corruption and power abuse is a major issue. We start getting an idea what the problem is, when the teacher in question, on her first day, asks all students what their parents do for a living. It gradually grows on us that her interest is not seeking background information about the students, very commendable if that was the case, but foremost that she is planning to make effective use of their potential. An example: One of the fathers is said to work on the airport, and she immediately sees an opportunity to smuggle bakery to her family abroad. Later on it appears that the airport employee in question is working as a sales clerk, and has no contact at all with plane crew personnel. So he can only make a feeble attempt to hand it over to passing plane personnel. It does not work due to everyone ignoring him. He is stuck with the cake, and sees no other way out than eating it by himself and not facing the music when coming home with it. This is just an example, but serves well as an illustration what this movie is about. Said teacher uses parents and children for a variety of domestic tasks, and passes information in return which parts of their home work should be studied in depth, as an examination about that particular material can be expected the next day. The meeting called by the school director does not progress as smoothly as planned. The majority of the parents do not dare to speak out that they feel "used" by the teacher too, or either see no harm in it "everyone does it". It all comes down to the fact that high marks for the children are very important for their future, and parents are prepared for anything to accommodate that. At first, the screenplay focuses on two families in particular, who are very outspoken they will sign the petition. We see various scenes in class and at home to illustrate the problem very thoroughly. Alas, for a considerable part of the running time these two couples are alone with their complaints, and no other parents seems prepared to follow suit. It takes some time for a few (very few) others to join in, and we hear their stories as well via scenes at home. This approach with scenes alternating between locations and protagonists works very well, and is useful for keeping our interest. Nevertheless, the meeting falters and most parents leave without having signed the petition. Yet, a very surprising outcome is to be expected, after all (no details, no spoilers). Apart from an indictment against people in a powerful position who may abuse their official position for private purposes, it also reminds us that corruption is still a major issue in some of the former Communist countries, as can be readily derived from recent movies like Durak/The Fool (Bykov 2014), Dolgaya Schastlivaya Zhizn/A Long And Happy Life (Khlebnikov 2013) and Leviathan (Zvyagintsev 2014). Those issues are not eliminated, apparently, and we still read about power abuse, self-serving bureaucrats and other forms of corruption in contemporary newspapers. On the other hand, similar issues exist in our Western countries as well, and the fact that papers, books and movies are not so outspoken about is, cannot be construed as a reason to believe that we are very different off here. Situations like the ones demonstrated in this movie, are feasible everywhere. I think this is the central theme of this movie, letting us stay awake and not lean backwards while thinking such problems only exist in far-away countries.
An Excellent Movie
First of all I'm not much a fan of dramas. But when the Cairo Film Festival was screening Teacher I thought to try something new and watch it, and was I glad I did. The story of the movies revolves around a school teacher and her class in Slovakia in 1983, apparently at that time it was under Soviet influence or ruling, who abuses her powers, helped by that fact that he got some connections that would protect her from accountability. She does so by implying or asking parents of children to do favors for here, such as doing her shopping or fixing things or such, and those who comply are given better grades, depending on the service they render her, and those who don't are harassed to no end. The situating continues for a while until Hanka -if that's how to spell it- who is a student of hers tries to commit suicide. Then Hanka's parents are done with the teacher and her abuse of power, and sign a compliant to the school. The headmistress gathers the parents of the kids and then we go back and forth between the meeting of the parents to discuss Miss Maria and flashbacks about a couple of the families and their kids. The film takes us into three families that are facing a really big problem. The highest authority of their kids future are corrupt and unjust. So most of them agree to do her favors but at some point some of them have enough and start to express their anger and want change. Then to our complete surprise we find out that they are opposed by the other parents. The opposing parents do the teacher bigger favors and as such their kids are treated specially. For that they seem to not only admit to doing her favors but to actually seeing this as no problem and a normal way to guarantee the future of their kids. So despite the fact that a kid almost killed herself they are totally apathetic to her and her parents and want the whole thing to be done with. We go a long way about this but you don't really feel bored since they go back and forth between some of the kids life and the meeting. Despite everything, and some unexpected surprise in the meeting, most of the parents simply walk away from the meeting. But then later they come in secret to sign the compliant. It gathers enough signatures and Miss Maria goes away and the class is free, the kids rejoice and everyone is happy. Then we see the last part with Miss Maria going into another class and doing the same thing over again, asking the kids about their parent's professions, in the same school or perhaps another one. Now the movie was quite well acted with excellent performance by most of the cast, especially Hanka and her parent's and Binder and Maria. The sound track was good with little music most of the time but good choices when the need arose. There were some beautiful scenes in the movie that truly made me sad and feeling for the kids who come under the power of such person, they can make you cry. And the Binder family scenes were quite strong as well and especially good. The movie made me care about those families and sympathize for them greatly which is no easy thing. The Ending was good and left both a feeling of happiness and sadness. Maybe the point that we always need to stand up to such abuse of power or it would happen to us, or maybe it was that we can't stop such abuse of power all the time, or maybe something else, I don't know. But what I know is that Hanka and her schoolmates are rid of Maria and that is, maybe, good enough
Czech black satire
"The Teacher" is a throw-back to communist times in Czechoslovakia. It's a sinister comedy dealing with the insidious effects even of low-level corruption that crept into everybody's lives and relationships when prevalent scarcity reigned. Mrs Drazdechova, a newly appointed teacher is a street-wise, manipulative woman who manages to extract goods and services from her pupils' parents according to their professional capacities in exchange for preferential treatment and information on upcoming tests. We watch her receiving free hair-styling, household repairs, shopping and domestic errands being done. The students whose parents will not or cannot deliver to her expectations receive very nasty treatment and are side-lined with dire consequences at home and amongst the children in class. Most parents are colluding, defending her and the status quo when it comes to a show-down at a parent-teacher meeting after some parents' tolerance for manipulation was exceeded. In a delightfully satirical twist of the story the resisting parents finally succeed in having the teacher removed from the school. However, complicity at a higher level now kicks in. As in the catholic church where paedophile priests were moved to new parishes, the politically connected teacher is transferred to another school. Besides her previous teaching load, here we witness her promotion to teach ethics as well, whilst in her introductory 'spiel' she yet again demands information from her pupils about their parents' professions! Systemic corruption is maintained.
a chilling allegory for moral corruption under communism
Some genre labels are highly deceptive. The Czech Republic produced film The Teacher (2016) is labelled a comedy drama but there is little humour in this dark political satire about totalitarian regimes. Minimalist in dialogue and action, it paints a sombre picture for the youth of the communist world. The storyline is simple but the atmosphere chilling. It is 1983 in Soviet-era Czechoslovakia and a long way from the child-centred education systems familiar to modern Western audiences. On the first day of school term, new teacher Maria Drazdechova (Zuzana Mauréry) asks each pupil to stand up and declare their parent's occupation. As the powerful chairwoman of the local communist party committee she seems over-confident while the camera pays close attention to her notebook of free services to be called upon. When the pupils inform their parents what happened, a cycle of silent complicity is triggered. Low performing pupils whose parents agree to Maria's hints, such as a free haircut, a fridge repair, or housecleaning, suddenly show an improvement in their school marks. High performing students whose parents do not curry the teacher's favour see their marks and future career prospects spiral downwards; one even attempts suicide. School authorities are intimated and there is no higher avenue of appeal. Both parents and pupils know that something sinister is happening as their school becomes a place of terror. The central narrative premise is so disturbing that little embellishment is needed to portray the moral brutality of a corrupt political system. Sub-plots of parent meetings and conspiring pupils add texture to drama. The desaturated filming palette conveys the cold fear of life under communist control and the acting style has a realistic, almost cameo quality that intensifies the trauma of Maria's victims. Zuzana Mauréry and the support cast are largely unknown but are perfect in their roles. Mauréry is particularly effective in portraying a smugly callous disregard for her pupils with a veneer of smiling innocence that masks her ruthless exploitation. While the teacher may depict the corrupt face of totalitarianism it is the parents who reciprocate the mass compliance necessary for propping up such regimes. It would be hard to describe this film as entertaining. There are few light moments and little to laugh at when depicting the communist way of life. Being sub-titled, some loss of dialogue nuance is inevitable but the message is unmistakable. With an authentic voice and sense of place, this is a gripping allegory for the moral corruption endemic to communism.
Powerful Drama
Set in 1983 in a Slovakian school, this is a powerful and dialogue driven Czech film directed by Jan Hrebejk and written by Petr Jarchovsky. During this era, the nation was entrenched in the Soviet Union's Communist orbit. Zuzana Maurery is superb portraying the imperious and rather despicable teacher Maria Drazdechova, who uses her position of Party Chairwoman at the school to manipulate parents and students into doing all sorts of favors for her. If they refuse, she makes sure they are harassed and given poor grades, while those who cooperate are protected and given high marks. When a rather tragic incident occurs with one of the harassed students, a meeting is called for all parents in the teacher's class to try and investigate what exactly is happening. Often told through flashbacks, we begin to see the web Drazdechova has spun here. The supporting cast , too numerous to mention, are truly excellent here, as well, with most naturalistic performances. It will all lead to a highly dramatic conclusion. All in all, I thought this was a move that was very well acted, directed, and written, so if you like cerebral and intense foreign dramas you may very well like this one.