"Country teacher" was the first Czech movie to be shown in Morocco during the European cinema week 2010 edition. The motion picture left the majority of the audience in a complete unease and resentment due to its depiction of Homosexual themes not fully accepted by the local culture. But what turned me off, was not the subject but the treatment of what seemed a genuine compelling premise.
the first shots introduce us to the protagonist(Petr) getting used to his new life as a teacher of a primary school in a rural region, the cinematography at first captures the lush beautiful landscape in a smooth direct fashion in contrast with the confusion and unease growing inside the title character that obviously hides a terrible secret that prompted him to flee his urban life for a hideout somewhere. But what seemed a build up for a tense deep narration, gets clumsily wasted when a single scene tells us that pets is struggling with his homosexuality and the obtrusive control of his mother that happens to teach in the same high school he left. This revelations seems to the author/director so groundbreaking that he relies for the rest of the motion picture on emotional tear jerker situations and lines never fully explained and lacking a simple coherent narrative line. There was some attempt at graphic and verbal symbolism through some teaching classes about the animal realm and some shots with special attention paid to the background but the whole thing falls short of any valuable addition to the story since forced and not heartily composed.There's also the uneven insertions of the soundtrack composed solely of modern classical vocal solos that pops up out of nowhere and fades unnoticed.
What really appalled me to finish with was the everybody-understands -forgives-themselves and everybody else ending. No denouement of the events led to what seemed a forced finale witch sole purpose was to transform the tortured souls into free forgiving new born persons that collaborate on a last symbol-loaded scene: the birth giving of a calf unwisely inserted into the narration but beautifully shot.
Overall a weak entry of the eastern European author cinema, that needs more coherent narration if it wants to win over a reluctant Moroccan audience uneasy with queer cinema to begin with!
the first shots introduce us to the protagonist(Petr) getting used to his new life as a teacher of a primary school in a rural region, the cinematography at first captures the lush beautiful landscape in a smooth direct fashion in contrast with the confusion and unease growing inside the title character that obviously hides a terrible secret that prompted him to flee his urban life for a hideout somewhere. But what seemed a build up for a tense deep narration, gets clumsily wasted when a single scene tells us that pets is struggling with his homosexuality and the obtrusive control of his mother that happens to teach in the same high school he left. This revelations seems to the author/director so groundbreaking that he relies for the rest of the motion picture on emotional tear jerker situations and lines never fully explained and lacking a simple coherent narrative line. There was some attempt at graphic and verbal symbolism through some teaching classes about the animal realm and some shots with special attention paid to the background but the whole thing falls short of any valuable addition to the story since forced and not heartily composed.There's also the uneven insertions of the soundtrack composed solely of modern classical vocal solos that pops up out of nowhere and fades unnoticed.
What really appalled me to finish with was the everybody-understands -forgives-themselves and everybody else ending. No denouement of the events led to what seemed a forced finale witch sole purpose was to transform the tortured souls into free forgiving new born persons that collaborate on a last symbol-loaded scene: the birth giving of a calf unwisely inserted into the narration but beautifully shot.
Overall a weak entry of the eastern European author cinema, that needs more coherent narration if it wants to win over a reluctant Moroccan audience uneasy with queer cinema to begin with!