"The Lesson" has recently received acclaim of almost poignant proportions, empathising with the drama of the schoolteacher heroine in a valueless post-communist state. Being Bulgarian, I can attest to the dramatic existence of teachers here, and would reiterate the fact the film is based on a true story. While the meager pay and monstrosity of society, hence youth's behaviour, is enough to drive one insane, I feel there's a fact which the film treats leniently, and in my eyes, illogically. The pillar of the family, teacher Nadya, is successful in keeping things together (even if unpaid for the side job she does) - until her house is broken into by debt collectors due to her husband skipping monthly payments, while misinforming her all had been fine. Whether she should have confronted him might be debatable, if holding spousal loyalty on a pedestal (which is in my opinion exactly what the film does), yet it is astonishing she should unquestionably take it all upon herself to fix the situation; if that is not enough, her junky-camper-enthusiast husband (far more detracted than, say, Jim Broadbent in Life Is Sweet) scolds her when he finds out she had resorted to a loan shark. The real tragedy the film conveys is that of, I dare say, the average Bulgarian woman who stoically puts up with the often good-for-nothing drunk or slacker husband, because... (here steps the lack of logic, and the lack of questioning by the audiences in Bulgaria). In the real-life story, the teacher had even won a Green card, and had everything ready in order to depart, when the husband got into a drunk-drive accident, nearly killing a passenger. The real heroine is apparently still dragging him on, while having made yet another relative success of her life, now in France. (She had got a 18-month suspended sentence for her crime.) Inadvertently, this film is a testimony of patriarchal post-Ottoman morals, superimposed with the post-Soviet narrative of a woman as crane-operator, or other industrial hero who is also head of the family and pillar of society (after the Mother Russia mythologem) - here being forced to disintegrate. Even statistics beat the myth, with Bulgaria nearing the bottom of worldwide birth rate's table, with war-torn countries above us. The acting of Margita Gosheva is superb if schematic (and her resemblance of the real-life heroine amazing), due to either storytelling shortcomings or intention. I agree with the NY Times reviewer that the story might have been more vivid and character-driven: we still are clueless as to Nadya's emotional landscape, as if it should not even be our concern. For generations, Bulgarians have been raised by being sworn to secrecy and the stiff-upper-lip, while having also been taught obedience: potentially an explosive character mix, which however tends to implode; a process the film registers. We cannot but admire the tight-lipped portrayal of survival-genius overtaking the heroine's inherent femininity. (For an introspection to womanhood, see Margita Gosheva's equally impressive previous role in Three Days in Sarajevo.) My review might be slightly unappreciative, while the filmmakers' intent at a humorous approach to the otherwise gritty story justifies the schematism/intellectual detachment, and is both refreshing and admirable.
