Lesson Learned

Lesson Learned is an extremely funny movie about the Hungarian education system, but only about the negatives.

The writing is amazing. Most of the situations are sadly realistic, but they are presented in a hilarious way at times. I expected a devastating movie, with a lot of negativity, but what I got instead was a film full of jokes and funny scenes. The dialogues were realistic, it rarely felt forced, which isn't usual for a Hungarian movie. The characters were well-written, but it was frustrating to see how neither of the protagonists could stand up for themselves. My two problems with the movie were that we see Palkó's mother in the beginning, but she disappeares for the rest of the movie. The other one was that all these bad things are highly unlikeable to happen at the same time.

The directing was amazing and the cinematography was perfect. A lot of closeups and wide shots were extremely well-done. The acting performances were surprisingly great considering the fact that the movie focused a lot on young children.

Lesson Learned is a hilarious movie about an important issue, I loved it.

This film holds up a realistic mirror to the surreal world of school. It's not an imaginary world, but it would be better if it were. You can meet your memories with the unimaginable amount of frustration, anger, fear that drives the daily school life that each of us experienced either 40 years ago or currently in school. The main theme is the little human games within the different micro-societies, the children, the teachers, the school as an institute, the school maintenance and also between these groups. The strength of this film is the realistic characterisation, the feeling that it has happened to you. And it has happened, and it is happening again and again, generation after generation. Every nation has a main issue that sooner or later has to be discussed honestly because it can't move forward. The state of education could be that key question for Hungary. A big bravo to the crew, to the children, and to the strongest Hungarian film of the year.

This movie is about the Hungarian elementary school system and its inflexibility. During this it gives also a detailed picture about the current Hungarian society.

I have two sons currently studying at elementary schools and the picture presented by the movie is extremely correct. The excellent teatcher who gets fired because of some political stuff, the old ladies gossiping in the teatchers room, the autocratic headmaster, the handywork teatcher who can not operate a computer etc. The movie also has a lot of funny moments, tragic but at the same time funny.. However I found it rather sad, because my older son got bullied and cathegorized as a black sheep by the teatchers in his previous schools. They got rid of him after 6 months. So I couldn't laugh. The actors performances are very good, considering many of them are children or just amateurs. Its a movie worth watching.

You could get PTSD from it - it contains all the oppressive atmosphere of schools, along with the misery of Hungarian schools. Incompetent teachers, bureaucracy, rejection (or even punishment) of any deviation from the rules. The better teachers are oppressed or fired, while the bad ones protect each other. The principal doesn't care what's going on - if someone asks for help or even just advice, they're brushed off. Some of the parents are problematic too. There's injustice toward the kids, they're humiliated. They're forced to memorize completely pointless stuff. (And it even brought up that thing I used to always use as an example - that stigma-whatever thing...)

The film is good - actually, very good. But at the end, you might be expecting a resolution, some kind of revelation about what the problem is, where the problem is, who's at fault, whether there will be any accountability... but there isn't. The film shows reality, and in reality, there's no happy ending. The guilty hide, there's no accountability, if someone has a problem nobody gives a damn, and those who want change have no way to make it happen.

Fekete Pont is a very realistic picture of what a Hungarian elementary school looks like and how dysfunctional it is. By showing a personal story of Palkó, a new 10-year-old, whose mother has to return to Hungary from Germany, the film brilliantly portrays the entire education system - rigid, corrupt, outdated, inefficient, and what's most important - absolutely deaf to the children's needs. We can see two rebellious voices in the film - one of a child who doesn't feel he belongs here, and the other one of a young teacher who comes to this gloomy place with an open heart and an open mind. Their voices seem to be too weak to be heard but by watching this film we are learning to hear them. And learning to notice, to see, to help, even if we're not in a Hungarian school; wherever we are in the world. Hopefully, this film is a small start of a big change both in the system and in our heads.