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Official Selection PIFF 40

The Teacher

Directed by Jan Hrebejk

Slovakia, Czech Republic • 2016 • 102 mins. • In Slovak

Showtimes & Past Screenings

In this intelligent and funny meditation on totalitarianism, the arrival of a new teacher at a Bratislava school in 1983 sparks a moral dilemma. As the highest-ranking Communist official in town, Mrs. Drazdeˇchová has power, and she uses it to blackmail her co-workers, students, and their parents for her personal gain. But the tide begins to turn when a few brave parents decide to speak up. A universal parable and a taut morality tale grappling with a recent Communist past, it smartly exposes the insidious and far-reaching effects of corruption at all levels of society

Reviews: Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Indiewire, Screen Daily

Filmography: Icing (2014), Honeymoon (2013), 4Some (2012), Innocence (2011), Up and Down (2004), Divided We Fall (2000)

Appears in: 40th Portland International Film Festival, New Czech Cinema, PIFF XL: Masters

The Northwest Film Center recognizes and honors the Indigenous peoples of this region on whose ancestral lands the museum now stands. These include the Willamette Tumwater, Clackamas, Kathlemet, Molalla, Multnomah and Watlala Chinook Peoples and the Tualatin Kalapuya who today are part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and many other Native communities who made their homes along the Columbia River. We also want to recognize that Portland today is a community of many diverse Native peoples who continue to live and work here. We respectfully acknowledge and honor all Indigenous communities—past, present, future—and are grateful for their ongoing and vibrant presence.