The Lesson

An honest, hard-working schoolteacher in a small Bulgarian town is driven to desperate measures to avoid financial ruin.

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  • ★★★½ review by matthew on Letterboxd

    The gaze of men doesn't just objectify but also vivisects women into discrete parts for consumption and control. The obstructions of mirrors and windows and computer monitors can't prevent the gaze from capturing, apprehending, holding. Women are subject to a gaze that's multivalent and powerful, an application of force wrought upon their bodies, cascading outwards from women's subjectivity to a vortex of male aggression.

  • ★★★½ review by Bendik Kaalaas on Letterboxd

    Kosmorama 2015 Film #2

    I like to compare films I'm watching with films I've watched previously, and The Lesson didn't escape that fate. It's a Bulgarian social realist film set in the current economic climate in Europe, and it's similar to the Dardenne brothers' Two Days, One Night starring Marion Cotillard. Unfortunately it's not quite that good, although Margita Gosheva is very good in the leading role as an honest teacher, when financial ruin starts threatening her stable family life.

    When it comes to the plot, it could definitely do with more restraint. Two Days, One Night did this beautifully, and never did I question what happened in that film. In The Lesson, there are too many coincidences and Murphy's law should have been toned down a bit. We know that she's having a shitty day, and that her situation is incredibly hard, but did the car really have to break down as well?

    But to be fair, it is a good film, and the performances are solid from pretty much everyone involved. It's a relevant theme, and I'm glad films are being made to showcase the hardships of common people who are just trying to keep their family afloat. The Lesson fits that bill nicely.

  • ★★★★ review by dartagnan on Letterboxd

    This was great: I was gripped all the way through and Margita Gosheva is excellent. Also, lessons to be learned:

    - never take out a loan

    - from anyone

    - ever

    - that's basically it

  • ★★★★ review by Simon Ramshaw on Letterboxd

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  • ★★★★★ review by Ayoub Boulaid on Letterboxd

    ترددت نوعا ما في أمر مشاهدة الفيـلم .. لكني بعد ذلك فعلت!

    بعد إتمامي له ومشاهدته مرة أخرى ,,

    تذكرت بإختصار كتابات نيتشه، كامو، وسيوران عن الأخلاق النظرية ..

    هذه التحفة تلخص تقلب وتعقيد وإضطراب المفاهيم والمعايير الأخلاقية لدى البشر ..

    أحببت الفيلم لبساطته وواقعيته!

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