Israel. Amir (Doron Ben-David) is the school’s cool teacher. Lianne (Maya Landsman) is a troubled student. When Amir sees that Lianne has gotten into another mess, she suggests giving a presentation in class. What he doesn’t expect is for the girl to argue in front of her classmates that Arabs should be banned from the local pool because they always make rude comments to the girls. “Death to the Arabs!” shouts a sector of the class. And, out of frustration with the amount of hate his student feels, Amir makes an unfortunate comment to his student in a private conversation. She, offended, begins a campaign to ruin the life of her teacher.
The lesson, created by Deakla Keydar and available on Filmin, is a clever piece of work. The motivations of the characters are understood from the first minute and, although it is much easier to root for Amir, a clever strategy of empathy is developed from the beginning. Lianne, fed up with the sexist behavior of a section of men in the pool, lets herself be carried away by a populist racism that easily penetrates a classroom with only Jewish students. Amir, accustomed to convincing the students with his vision of the world, loses his temper in front of a student who is in full rebellion against the world.
Furthermore, it cannot be said that it is a Manichean or complacent work. The characters are portrayed, their beliefs and actions are justified, without the intention of being judged before the cameras but rather to open a panoramic photograph of the educational system and the official discourse of Israel. The idea of ??excluding an entire community is analyzed based on individual experiences, without invalidating legitimate complaints. The machismo rooted in the population from faith is mentioned without structuring a xenophobic discourse.
It exposes the extent to which Arab citizens have second-class citizen status in the country and the division even in areas not exposed to the severe apartheid of Gaza. And, based on the appearance of a soldier, the existence of freedom of opinion in the country is questioned, taking into account how untouchable the armed forces are. How can critical thinking be conveyed if a professor can be fired for mentioning the deplorable actions of his country’s military?
At a time when Israel is at the center of the public conversation for its war against Hamas that has repercussions on the Palestinian population of Gaza, The lesson serves to understand an Israeli mental framework critical of the functioning of the system, addressing the grays of an a priori unsustainable society. And, unfortunately, it conveys an idea: to what extent hatred permeates society from the process of formation of new generations, due to recent history, due to the losses of families, due to the decisions made by the government.
We appreciate a series with teenage characters that understands so well the impulse, the formation of a political opinion and the difficulty of structuring a thought that moves away from drastic formulas driven by environmental hatred. The conversation that The Lesson establishes with the viewer is stimulating, regardless of the country, due to the development of societies where the values ??of different communities often clash with each other.