If great movies resulted purely from wizardly technical displays, then Czech writer-director Bohdan Sláma's The Country Teacher would be a masterpiece to give Béla Tarr pause.

| Original Score: 2/6 | Nov 17, 2011

It's the kind of film that Hollywood used to excel at but no longer seems interested in making.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 19, 2009

The film boasts subtle performances and curious situations with unpredictable outcomes.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 23, 2009

The film is graced with lovely performances by Pavel Liska as the teacher, Zuzana Bydzovska as Marie and Ladislav Sedivy as the boy.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 10, 2009

Despite all the pain and self-loathing of its wounded characters, it's a pretty, heartwarming picture that tells us everybody needs somebody to help shatter that ol' boulder for good.

| Jun 26, 2009

Liska, who looks like a Central European version of the young Harvey Keitel, has a kind of pitch-perfect opacity.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 21, 2009

It's a movie that demonstrates, if you'll pardon the sports metaphor, how deep the bench is in Eastern European film.

| Apr 3, 2009

Directed by Bohdan Slma, it deals with weighty issues -- loneliness, sexual identity, love (straight and gay) -- in a quiet, intelligent fashion.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 27, 2009

The film's portrayal of farm life as a rugged pastorale lends The Country Teacher a foundation of visceral truth.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 27, 2009

This sweetly ingenuous film, written and directed by Bohdan Slma, is a lot less sentimental about cows and flowers than it is about its human protagonists, who fall domino-like in love with churls who won't love them back.

| Mar 24, 2009

Bohdan Slma's direction for The Country Teacher, a film characterized by beautifully long, languorous takes, has an assured expressiveness that's at odds with the story's bumpy narrative.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 24, 2009