I was intrigued by the promise for a social crime drama in the vein of Breaking Bad and Fargo, but this movie turned out to be something entirely different. What happens in Blaga's Lessons do not stem from a conflict with the world, but rather from within - from Blaga's very sense of rightness. There's no external event that sets her in motion; it's just her need to do everything like it should be done. The fraud she later suffers is again only made possible because the criminals refer to her morals and her sense of social duty. The private lessons she teaches once again demonstrate her black-and-white thinking, the immense significance she places on minor details and how severely she judges even the slightest mistake. Ultimately, exactly this stringent mindset is why it becomes so easy for her to break bad: she already believes she's no good because of something that, in fact, is entirely forgivable. This whole character study is probably an even better idea than the promoted one and the groundwork for its development is there. Unfortunately, for me, the movie worked only after some consideration and that robed it from immediate effect in the theatre. Also, it's very Blaga-like, if you will, to measure the character's own drama against "bigger" dramas like it's done here through the image of her foreign student, a war refugee.
Review of Blaga's Lessons
