The pressures of monetary stress are used to great effect in this compulsive, pared-down Bulgarian drama that is as gripping as any thriller. Its focus is Bulgarian schoolteacher Nade (Margita Gosheva), who finds herself in dire financial straits: her husband has missed their mortgage payments and she must beg and borrow money at all costs to avoid the bank auctioning off their house – in three days.

Nade must use all her resourcefulness and energy to stave off catastrophe – her increasingly limited options eventually mean she has to resort to the services of a loan shark. But her distinctions between right and wrong are in flux, and the obstacles – such as merciless, petty bank charges that will be painfully familiar to most – are mounting as her beliefs are tested, compromised, and abandoned.

With dashes of dark humour, The Lesson offers a tough education on the limits of honesty when faced with brutal economic reality, and one that the directors want to continue. According to the pair, The Lesson is just the first of three films about “the quiet rebellion of the little person against the mercantile, soulless and cynical world we live in”.

We’re getting a new kitchen in December

Throughout December the builders will be in to fit our new kitchen. We will still have a Soups and Sharing Platters menu and the bar will be open as usual but as the kitchen will be closed Cinebites is going to take a month’s break. Find out more here, including details of the schedule of work. Thank you for your patience in advance.

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