“The Teachers’ Lounge” reputation has been growing since it competed last year at the Berlin International Film Festival, and it is justified. (Movie distributor Alambique)
The classroom film is kind of a sub genre on its own, going from “Goodbye Mr.Chips”, “Blackboard Jungle”, “The Dead Poet’s Society”, “Dangerous Minds”,“The Emperor’s Club” to “Mona Lisa Smile”. It is a very relatable subject – sincewe all went to school and dealt with teachers – it is a type of movie thatemerges from time to time.
Money is being stolen from purses in a school somewhere in Germany and a young teacher Carla Nowak (splendidly played by Leonie Benesch) decides to start an investigation of her own and catch the culprit. One day she leaves her laptop with her camera recording in the teachers lounge, and the results will make her do rash decisions… The movie has a misleading start, when a student from an ethnic minority group is accused, and we think the movie will be about racism. The movie isactually about authority and how a naive teacher that tries to be friends withher students will be caught in the wheels of the education system and will have to deal with a mob. First, the kids’ parents later the kids themselves turn against the teacher.
The movie is built almost like a thriller with a tense violin soundtrack. Sometimes we’re not even sure that Frau Kuhn, the lady being accused is the real thief since we see hallucinations of many people with the same shirt. We begin to wonder if Carla Nowak has lost her mind in the process. I loved the ambiguous ending, when the kid returns the rubik’s cube to the teacher. In a way it seems to be a kind of triumph of teaching and of the education system. The kid is taken against his will by a couple of policemen, while sitting in the chair, like a king, a sovereign being taken by two slaves.The movie poses very important questions about what is education and makes us wonder if teachers have gone too soft on the students. The movie is nominated for the Academy Award of Best International FeatureFilm and I sincerely hope it wins. This is indeed a very good year for the movies.