Lesson Learned

Balint Szimler's 2024 Hungarian film follows Palko, ten, who has moved from Berlin to Budapest. He does not understand the rules at his new school; the teachers expect obedience and he asks why he should obey. The film is in two parts. In the first the events are given from the child's view and in the second from that of a young teacher who has just started there; the same classroom is shown twice and the second view completes the first. Szimler shows the school not as an educational institution but as a machine for producing conformity. The cast is largely made up of real pupils and teachers; the camera is inside the classroom and the scenes run long. Who it's for: those who like Central European cinema and critical dramas about education. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a resolution; the film defines the problem without fixing it.