Summary
Alongside regime-ordered political propaganda, director Václav Matějka also turned his attentions towards less contentious fare during the 1970s and early 80s. This film from 1982 tells the story of young teacher Petra Jánská (Zlata Adamovská), whose arrival at a small town school is driven by her desire to be closer to her boyfriend. While the idealistic teacher tries to help improve the education of her new pupils, her lover Jakub (Ivan Vyskočil) attempts to manage a tough situation afflicting his employment at a local paper mill. The small town environment is riddled with lies and machinations. Petra does her best to sift through all of this to help a pupil, Pavel. But the end result of her efforts is an unexpected tragedy. Matějka also served as screenwriter for Má láska s Jakubem (Loving James) and spiced up the tale with sequences featuring abstract “metaphorical” masked characters.
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