The Lesson - (2014)


The Lesson Bulgarian film review


The Lesson is a Bulgarian foreign language film that follows the story of a small town elementary school teacher who is robbed by one of her students.

The film follows the teacher, as she tries to teach her students a valuable lesson between what is right and wrong.

She is also unable to pay her bills due to her lack of money. Which eventually leads her getting into serious trouble with loan sharks.

The lesson touches on important real world themes relating to increasing rising debt in Eastern European countries, economic inadequacy in the region and the explosion of the loan shark industry in countries like Bulgaria and Greece.


Synopsis



Nadezhda is a young school teacher in a small town in Bulgaria. She is married, has a daughter and unlike many in her town, she has a relatively safe job.

One day after any other school day, she realises that her wallet is missing. She looks everywhere for it and ultimately draws the conclusion that one of her students pilfered it from her.

The next day she sits her students down and tells her class all about what happened. She offers the thief a chance at anonymously return her wallet without facing any consequences.

But the wallet does not find a way back to her desk after class. And so starts a week of Nadezhda’s lessons. Lessons that involve discussing the importance morals, ethics and honesty is in life.

Outside of the classroom things aren’t going well either. Nadezhda and her husband find themselves behind with their payments, as they are low on funds. Nadezhda’s husband assures her they will find a way though it, but she knows they cannot fix their situation on their own.

She ends up borrowing money from some local loan sharks and becomes extremely indebted to them.

The remainder of the film follows Nadezhda as she tries to figure out which one of her students stole her wallet and why. As well as finding herself in hot water with the the aforementioned loan sharks when she is unable to pay her dues.


Important Themes



The Lesson is a film that is set directly on the topic of the abysmal state of economics in Eastern Europe.

With the failure of many national GDP’s and high unemployment rates in the past decade, the Bulgarian dollar was sent into an economic free-fall in 2008.

In 1997, Bulgaria was hit by massive hyperinflation. At the time, Bulgaria had the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio within the EU.

This led the country adopting their own national currency called the ‘Bulgarian Lev’ in July of 1997. The Lev was backed by the United States, Germany and even briefly by the International Monetary Fund.

However, Bulgaria remains to be a relatively poor country. Even though the country’s economy has improved since their recession in 2008-2009, the country still maintains the lowest GDP measures out of all EU member states.

The country also still faces issues of “corruption in public administration, a weak judiciary, low productivity, and the presence of organized crime continue to hamper the country's investment climate and economic prospects”, as stated by Forbes in their economic profile of the country.

Furthermore due to the lack of cash flow in Eastern Europe, many have turned to the loan shark industry to make ends meet.

Estimates from international black market experts  Havocscope detail, “between $6.2 Billion to $12.5 Billion (5 to 10 Billion Euros) is illegally lent to consumers in Greece each year by loan sharks”. In addition, going onward to state “the loan shark industry quadrupled in size between 2009 and 2012”.


Conclusion



The Lesson is a great watch. It has a slower pace but details a very high stakes situation for Nadezhda. She attempts to do right by her family but gets caught in a tumultuous position.

The film explores the interesting narrative of wealth distribution in Bulgaria well, while telling a personal story reflecting on the systemic economic issues people face.

Be sure to give it a watch. The Lesson may not be as flashy as other films I discuss but it sure has a lot of debt depth to it.

Ali Tamachi

Alik is a marketer and writer who creates compelling "chef's kiss" worthy marketing and advertising collateral. Outside of his professional setting he is a big film nerd, loves reading, running and doing digital art. Feel free to follow him on his journey from the links below.

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