Teacher Irena

Irena prods and cajoles her students into mastering reading and math. At the same time she’s a formidable Red Army drill sergeant and a doting mother hen complimenting students, telling them how smart and wonderful they are with every correct answer they give or properly sharpened pencil they bring to class. The extreme combination gets results.

"Teacher Irena" tells of...teacher Irena, an extremely charismatic woman, who has only one thing in her life - an enormous amount of love for the children. A single parent, all she ever does, inside the school, and outside of school hours, is take care of the kids, coming from different backgrounds, and different social status. A moving film about an extraordinary woman.

Teacher Irena is a source of light and warmth – not the warm gentle glow of a flickering candle flame, but the fire that burns in the belly.

While she cares for the children’s well-being in every possible way, she is a teacher first and she excels at getting these children, some of whom already have to work part-time, to learn. Radiating positive energy, she gives a math lesson, getting all the children to participate, correcting those who give wrong answers gently, praising any child who makes an effort. When the children are in class, it’s clear from their faces that they are concentrating and thinking. She teaches them “with a mixture of belief in them and love,” says Chen.