VENKOVSKÝ UČITEL

A young teacher leaves the Prague school where he works alongside his mother and takes a job in a village school. The shy newcomer is offered a room by Marie, a young widow with a 17-year-old son. While Marie likes the idea of living with a man again, the teacher is more reserved. But he is growing very fond of her son. When he makes advances to the sleeping boy, the teacher’s “secret” can no longer be concealed. To make things worse, an ex-lover arrives for an unexpected visit...

Tackling a subject that can be viewed as semi-taboo in Czech cinema still, the director takes a sensitive approach to the young intellectual’s homosexuality, aided by his actor of preference Pavel Liška’s finely rendered depiction of a confused individual unable to face up to his sexual inclinations and permanently running away from himself. At the same time, Sláma is careful to resist the temptation to depict the teacher as purely the victim of intolerant (village) society. The teacher is condemned to become an outsider precisely because of his initial inability to be candid and open.

The film attracted some 200,000 viewers in the Czech Republic – renewed evidence of how young Czech film has come of age and is constantly seeking new themes.