Director Jan Hřebejk and screenwriter Petr Jarchovský have returned to the Karlovy Vary competition, where they have succeeded in the past with the films Beauty in Trouble and Honeymoon, to bring us their new work The Teacher. This story from Bratislava in 1983 follows a manipulative homeroom teacher whose behaviour is being addressed by her students' parents at a special meeting.
"I experienced the basis for the story myself in the late 70s, in sixth or seventh grade. My classmate, who was otherwise an above-average student, had a conflict with this one old hag and she got burned for it," Jarchovský relates. "Adults often get over injustice, but children are particularly sensitive to it," Hřebejk adds.
The film's title character asks various favours from the children and their parents in exchange for good grades. "It often happens that people will bend over for a small advantage. It's good that this film reminds us that we shouldn't do it," says producer Kateřina Ondřejková from Czech Television. "My character is absurd and monstrous, but on the other hand also tragicomic. I tried to keep her just on the boundary of where the joke is actually dangerous," describes Zuzana Mauréry, who plays the teacher.
Alongside her, the film features a number of other Slovak actors as well, as the team managed to find funding in Slovakia from television and a fund. "We're not going to dub the film for Czech audiences. That would be ridiculous. We screened it for high school kids and there were only a couple of words they didn't catch like murár (mason). Thanks to talent shows, young people today understand Slovak better than fifteen years ago," says Hřebejk. Both countries have the premiere at the same time - The Teacher will hit both Czech and Slovak cinemas on 21 July.
