Andrei Konchalovsky’s debut feature is “expressed with a deft simplicity of style and rare quality of emotion” (Michel Ciment). The First Teacher spares no illusions in showing the hardships and hostility encountered by a former Red Army soldier in a rural Central Asian locale (today’s Kyrgyzstan), where he is sent to teach. Although he is not well educated, the teacher’s strength is his belief in the new order. Cinematographer Georgy Rerberg (who also worked with Andrei Tarkovsky, among others) films the remote location and cast of many nonprofessional actors with an extraordinary eye for detail. This astonishingly beautiful film, which Tom Luddy championed, deserves to be better known.

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