The Lesson

Nadezhda teaches at a school in a small Bulgarian town. When she finds that something has been stolen in her class she insists on finding out who did it; she wants to teach the children honesty. At the same time her own house is about to be seized: her husband spent the tax money, the bank has set a deadline, and there is nobody who can find the sum. She goes from door to door, ends up at a loan shark, and finally has to do the exact opposite of what she has been trying to teach. The first feature directed by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov together, with Margita Gosheva as Nadezhda. It won the new directors award at San Sebastián. It shows Bulgaria in the years of the crisis through a few days of one woman's life.