Not to be confused with the superior Bulgarian UROK (THE LESSON) in which another teacher driven to the end of their wits tries in vain to teacher her students a valuable life lesson, the feature debut of actress-turned-director Ruth Platt (THE PIANIST) finds put-upon and bullied secondary school teacher Mr. Gale (Robert Hands, SHINE) arriving at the conclusion that man's true nature is as Lord of the Flies's William Golding believed "base, savage, and cruel." Abducting the two worst examples of his class - slut-shaming bully Joel (Rory Coltart) and follower Fin (Evan Bendall) - casting them as captive audiences in his power tool-assisted lesson on human nature, cruelty, and empathy. Unlike some disturbing stateside examples, THE LESSON does not demand its audience empathize with the teacher (however increasingly disempowered and marginalized they are made to feel as glorified babysitters) as it becomes quite obvious through his verbacious lectures that Mr. Gale has always looked upon his pupils as "base, savage, and cruel" beings, expecting mimicry rather than empathy for the "kindness" he believes he initially demonstrated with them. Although the film does give depth to Fin as the product of his environment - having lost the mother who loved him, unwanted by the absent father who believed him to be fathered by another, barely tolerated by elder brother Jake (Tom Cox) who would prefer that he apply for government housing, with the only positive force in his life in Jake's wife Mia (Michaela Prchalová) who values the family she has made with them - it does not excuse Fin's acting out or the cruelty and wanton destructiveness of him and his friends. However much Gale likens Joel to Lord of the Flies' sadist and expresses surprise at his own enjoyment of torture, the teacher's enjoyment of the pain he inflicts suggests an unacknowledged sadistic streak finally given full reign. If the ending seems more than a little escapist, it is a relief after the unrelenting grimness of the preceding entirety.