The Nail That Sticks out Gets Hammered Down – Lesson Learned Review

When I walked into the cinema to check out the pre-premier screening of “Lesson Learned”, I vaguely knew what to expect. Approximately a year ago, “Without Air” already provided a rather well-executed glimpse into the niche genre of Central European education system drama, which only those who actually had to study under such circumstances understand.

Accordingly, “Lesson Learned”, directed by Bálint Szimler, offers a sad, yet realistic portrayal of an education system in gradual decay. Set in a Hungarian school, the film captures the suffocating atmosphere of a system burdened by unnecessary bureaucracy, aggressive/incompetent teachers, and overbearing parents.

But what truly stands out is the understatedness of the whole trip way down the educational rabbit hole — even the ending doesn’t scream resolution but instead fades into the monotonous grind of everyday reality. The general acceptance of hopelessness by most characters is what gives the film its quiet, devastating power, blending into the film’s depiction of a system where no one is really winning, just enduring.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

Well, also, the school facilities look eerily similar to what they looked like when yours truly attended elementary school some two decades ago. Yes, they were outdated even back then. Sure, in “Fekete Pont”’s school, now there are computers (that do not work), a fancy system to obtain grants for window repairs (did you really expect to get help over here, pal?), and maybe even multiple soup options (even though both options A and B are borderline inedible). What stayed however is a “beautiful” mix of old school Prussian education principles mixed with an outdated mentality which was born during the heyday of communism in Eastern Europe.

The film’s central character, Palkó (played by Paul Mátis), struggles to navigate the rigid structures of the Hungarian school, which he finds almost alien after his time abroad. Throughout the movie, we see his ideals slowly erode as he’s crushed by the weight of rules and expectations he can’t reconcile. The other tragic hero of this story is Juci (Anna Mészöly), a young teacher trying her utmost to break the grey shroud of boredom and hopelessness hovering over the school, who only sees her efforts thwarted by the majority of absolutist old timers on the teaching staff. She is also pretty much the only one who takes an issue with the brutal methods of PE teacher Ákos (played in a brilliantly repulsive way by Ákos “Dadan” Kovács).

Bleak, yet all too real

What Szimler does so brilliantly is maintain the slow-burn tension, peppered with a few outrageous teacher-student incidents, right up until the final moments, which simply dissolve into the sad reality of everyday existence in a broken system. However, while the film’s mood is undeniably effective, “Lesson Learned” can be overwhelming in its bleakness. The oppressive environment created by the old, incompetent teachers and the obnoxious, demanding parents adds to the overall sense of despair. The film paints a vivid picture of how worn down everyone is, but it lacks a few more positive characters to counterbalance this negativity. Even one or two more sympathetic figures could have provided some much-needed light in the otherwise suffocating gloom.

Despite this, the film excels in creating a strikingly real atmosphere. The school feels like a relic from another time—its dated facilities and rigid hierarchies untouched by the changes of the outside world- and yet still very real. The cinematography by Marcell Rév is excellent as always, brilliantly capturing the understated drama unfolding in the school halls Szimler’s subtle moments of absurdity, like when a simple sophomoric pun turns into a gigantic incident, or when one of the unbelievably incompetent teachers tries to take care of the replacement of a window (and fails to achieve anything over the course of an entire school-year), add a much needed layer of dark humor to the proceedings.