Mr. Valentine teaches literature at a bilingual high school in Poland; today is his last lesson as a teacher before he assumes the new position of principal. His students are, by and large, wealthy and well-off, the future elite of the country. But they are also cynical, blase and obsessed with their phones, and Mr. Valentine lays into them about using A.I. for writing their assigned essays.
The teacher does his best to get through to his students, teaching a lesson on Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky and how his work anticipated the rise of perilous ideologies in Russia. But when they fail to engage with the lesson, he takes drastic measures to grab their attention.
Mr. Valentine then demands his students write a response on its themes, but when he realizes none of his students have even read the text, he is infuriated. As the teacher, actor Rene Zagger offers an impassioned, fierce turn as an educator who fervently believes in his mission but is dismayed and then enraged by the growing detachment of his students. He knows what he is teaching -- and the discussion it should engender --has relevance more than ever, but his students are too removed and absorbed to pay attention, much less care. So he decides to wake them up with a drastic, even dangerous gesture.
Director: Piotr Toczynski
Writer: Piotr Toczynski
Stars: René Zagger, Paulina Chapko, Alicja Wieniawa-Narkiewicz