"The Teacher" is a throw-back to communist times in Czechoslovakia. It's a sinister comedy dealing with the insidious effects even of low-level corruption that crept into everybody's lives and relationships when prevalent scarcity reigned. Mrs Drazdechova, a newly appointed teacher is a street-wise, manipulative woman who manages to extract goods and services from her pupils' parents according to their professional capacities in exchange for preferential treatment and information on upcoming tests. We watch her receiving free hair-styling, household repairs, shopping and domestic errands being done. The students whose parents will not or cannot deliver to her expectations receive very nasty treatment and are side-lined with dire consequences at home and amongst the children in class. Most parents are colluding, defending her and the status quo when it comes to a show-down at a parent-teacher meeting after some parents' tolerance for manipulation was exceeded. In a delightfully satirical twist of the story the resisting parents finally succeed in having the teacher removed from the school. However, complicity at a higher level now kicks in. As in the catholic church where paedophile priests were moved to new parishes, the politically connected teacher is transferred to another school. Besides her previous teaching load, here we witness her promotion to teach ethics as well, whilst in her introductory 'spiel' she yet again demands information from her pupils about their parents' professions! Systemic corruption is maintained.
Review of The Teacher
