No. 38 (2023) THE TEACHER'S LOUNGE (DAS LEHRERZIMMER) Palace Cinema German Film Festival 2023. May 21st.

 

Film No. 38  (2023)  May 21st.  4:10 PM  LUNA LEEDERVILLE,  Cine 5, Leederville.

 

"I understand your outrage but you don't know how long it has been going on" (A colleague of Leonie's gives his opinion on top of the tensions building in The Lounge).

NOMINATIONS: Including Best Film, Best Director (Ilker Catak) and Best Actress (Leonie Benesch) German Film Awards 2023.

 

Films mirroring naturalism where the drama, specifically, is generated from the confines of a teachers' staff room, are few and far between. A teacher's lounge has never had the grit or glamour of a police operations room or a corporate backroom when it comes to screen story telling, but DAS LEHRERZIMMER creates a tension worth squirming through. We do have Miss Nowak's back here, riding her every move, but can we save her career?

Possibly not, but Leonie Benesch presents us with a character choc full of integrity and courage. She brings us into her workplace as an inexperienced but highly competent teacher. She has devised techniques to engage her upper-elementary school students. She is gaining their respect with every boundary she sets. Her students appreciate her care. So when she devises a method to seek out which fellow staff member is raiding her handbag for the contents of her purse ... the complications that follow, leads to stress levels she could never have contemplated. 

And so while Leonie is well within her rights to find justice, the fact she is an outsider (new teacher, but not from the region) the tension in her life builds then squeezes her. There are no 'good guy, bad guy' clichés here. Her management team follow due process in support of her allegation but because the accused is a local, and pleads her innocence, and has a child in Leonie's class and has social currency, Leonie is caught between a "rock and a hard place".

Ilker Catak has created a film not specific to German culture. The politics that go with this story is generic. It is a social drama spoken with a balanced view and leaves her audience with a thought or two. Does Miss Novak lose her job? Did she do any wrong here? Did she lean a life lesson to take with her for years to come? Go see LEHRERZIMMER, the answers lie within!  10GUMS.