Ana Bauch is a literature teacher in a small (and repressed) Hungarian town. When one of her students is caught watching a film she recommended, about the love affair between Rimbaud and Verlaine, the repercussions are calamitous.
The students absolutely adore Ana and her unorthodox methods–she makes literature come alive, offering hope and release in this repressed village. In order to help her kids understand Rimbaud’s poetry, she suggests they watch Total Eclipse, a 1995 film that delves into the writers’ homosexual relationship. When word gets out, Ana is accused of propagating “homosexual propaganda”--should she abandon teaching? If she stays, what will teaching even be like anymore? Katalin Moldovai’s thought-provoking film is a blistering look at her country’s repressive government and paean to teachers everywhere.