"Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible — not to run away."
— Dag Hammarskjold
There are times in the lives of good people when they find it difficult — if not impossible — to maintain their rigorous principles in the face of an unrelenting storm of troubles. Such is the plight of Nade (Margita Gosheva), an English teacher in a Bulgarian school. Her satisfying routine is upended when a student steals some money from her wallet. This minor crime cascades through her already stressed-out existence, knocking her off balance and sending her into a dark place.
To complicate matters, her irresponsible husband (Ivan Barnev) has been stealing money from their mortgage payments and Nade discovers that unless the money is paid with interest, their house will be auctioned off by the bank. Equally disturbing is the realization that her daughter favors her father over her.
Despite the weight of all these pressures and disappointments, this courageous woman sets out to save her home. But her wealthy father refuses to give her the money she needs after she is rude to his new wife; then the man who owes her money for her translation work skips town after declaring bankruptcy. This leaves Nade with no choice but to get the money she needs from a nasty and dangerous loan shark.
The Lesson is an intense drama about resiliency, ethical action in amoral times, and the cruelty of banks and other societal institutions who are indifferent to poor people when they are in trouble and in need of help. In scenes that are more scary than many action dramas, Nade is forced to race against the clock to get to the bank on time. In the process, everything that could go wrong does and yet her vast and hidden reserves of energy and determination help her as she tries to achieve her goal.
Margita Gosheva's depiction of this courageous and resourceful woman enables us to identify with her situation and to empathize with her refusal to run away from her troubles. The film has been written and directed by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov who make the most of incidents in which bank employees humiliate Nade and try to hide behind rules and regulations set up to cover their interests. The Lesson has plenty to teach us about the difficulties of living an ethical life.
Special features on the DVD include the short film Crooked Candy.