The Lesson

The Bulgarian movie Urok (2014) was shown in the U.S. with the translated title The Lesson. The film was co-written and co-directed by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov.

Margita Gosheva stars as Nadezhda, a middle-school teacher in a small Bulgarian city. The film opens with a small theft in the classroom, and the plot circles around that issue.

Nadezhda is beset by major problems--a spendthrift husband who has no source of income, a young daughter who loves her father more than she loves her mother, and her own father who is living with a woman younger than Nadezhda. (Her father hasn't bothered to remember his granddaughter's name.)

The success of the movie depends on the actor playing Nadezhda. She is Margita Gosheva, and she is superb. (I knew she was a good actor because I saw her in another Bulgarian film--Glory.)

After watching The Lesson, I know that Gosheva is a great actor. In my opinion she is the Bulgarian equivalent of the English actor Sally Hawkins--she can do no wrong. (Anyone who can successfully portray a high-ranking civil servant in one movie and a financially strapped middle-school teacher in another movie has to be great.)

As I think back on The Lesson, I can't remember a single happy moment. So, if you're looking for a feel-good movie, this isn't it. However, if you want a powerful, intense film, seek it out and watch it.

We saw Urok on DVD, where it worked well. It has a pretty good IMDb rating of 7.2. I thought that it was much better than that, and rated it 9.