Venkovský ucitel (2009)

The approximately 35-year-old teacher Petr arrives in a village somewhere in the Czech Republic. He has left his job at a Prague high school and now teaches natural science at the village school. Before long, he meets Marie and the two become friends. She is about ten years older than him, has been widowed for a long time, and runs a farm with her son, Láďa. His girlfriend, Beruška, is visiting. By chance, she attends the same high school Petr has just left, where Petr’s mother still teaches. People often ask Petr what prompted him to switch from there to the village school, and he only reluctantly tells them about the tensions between him and his mother. He also tells Marie about his girlfriend, whom he broke up with and who is now married to someone else. Petr and Marie spend a lot of time together. He helps her with the fieldwork, and Marie feels drawn to him. But when she tries to get closer to him, he turns her down, which Marie attributes to their age difference. Soon afterward, Petr visits his parents in Prague and only then tells his mother that he is gay. When his mother learns that he doesn’t have a boyfriend, she advises him: “You shouldn’t be alone. Loneliness is awful.” After he returns to the village, Marie asks whether Petr could tutor her son. Láďa, however, is so defiant that the first attempt ends in failure. Petr is unexpectedly visited by his ex-boyfriend, who cannot accept their breakup. Only when Petr explains that he doesn’t feel any love for him do they both let the past rest and go to a village festival together. Unlike Petr, who is a rather quiet person, his ex-boyfriend doesn’t hold back. He supplies Marie’s son, Láďa, and his girlfriend, Beruška, with alcohol and other drugs, and shortly afterward it ends in a fight in which Láďa is beaten. Beruška dumps Láďa and continues partying with Petr’s ex-boyfriend. The two of them leave the village together the next morning. Láďa is devastated by the loss of his girlfriend, and Petr offers the young man moral support. A friendship develops between them, and the tutoring resumes. After passing his exam, Láďa celebrates with Petr among the villagers and gets drunk after a disappointing phone call with Beruška. Too drunk to get home, he is taken by Petr to his lodgings. Petr makes him a bed, and once he is asleep, snuggles up to him. He starts stroking him, and his hand moves lower and lower. Láďa wakes up, angrily shoves Petr away, and flees. Petr wants to apologize the next day, but Láďa rejects him. When Marie witnesses the confrontation between her son and Petr, she confronts the teacher. He claims that he raped her son, whereupon Marie drives him off the farm. Her son tells her that Petr touched his penis. Shortly afterward, Marie finds Petr in a cow pasture, where he has tried to take his own life with pills. Petr comes to again, however. She takes him to her farm on a tractor and tries to get him into the house, but her son does everything he can to stop her. He calls Petr a “gay pig” who deserves to die, packs his things, and leaves the house. Marie looks after the teacher, who is still completely dazed from the pills. Láďa turns up in Prague and intercepts Beruška outside the high school, but she has no interest in getting back together. So he leaves Prague and walks beside the highway, with no particular destination. Beruška has meanwhile called Marie and told her that Láďa came to see her. When Petr hears about it, he goes to the high school, where he also meets his mother and tells her that he can no longer work as a teacher. Back in the village, he tells Marie that her son’s whereabouts are unknown and that he intends to move back to Prague and look for some kind of work there. Marie gives nothing away, agrees with him, and leaves. Petr stands there for a long time, then follows her. Marie is crying, and when Petr comes over to her, they embrace. Instead of going to Prague, Petr eventually shows up in the staff room at the village school and asks if he can stay. The school principal and a teacher respond with delighted agreement, but their enthusiasm abruptly ends when Petr asks a question. “I wanted to ask you: does it bother you that I’m homosexual?” After a brief pause, the principal is the first to find his voice and explains that nowadays it is already officially a normal thing, and the teacher also agrees with his stammered response, having previously been left speechless. Láďa returns home, but immediately wants to leave again when he sees that Petr is in the house. Marie asks her son to stay and forgive Petr. There is little time to talk, as a cow is calving. It isn’t long before Láďa is helping pull the calf out of the cow, too. The three of them admire the calf in the straw, with Láďa kneeling between Marie and Petr.