18/02/2023 - BERLINALE 2023: Set within the walls of a public school, İlker Çatak’s new feature is a compelling drama where apparently insignificant micro-events trigger a snowball effect

Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch) is a promising young teacher who lands her first job. She teaches Maths and Physical Education to a class of seventh graders somewhere in Germany. Everything seems to be going fine, until a series of small thefts occur within the school walls. One of her students is a suspect, and in his defence, Carla decides to investigate further personally. She leaves her laptop and a wallet with some banknotes in it somewhere in the staff room. The trap works a little too well, and the laptop manages to record someone’s arm stealing her wallet. One of the school’s secretaries, Mrs Kuhn (Eva Löbau), suddenly becomes suspect number one, as she was wearing the same type of shirt on the day of the theft. It’s the beginning of the end.

The set-up of this story is simple, and a “snowball effect” narrative mechanism will manage to keep viewers hooked. Nonetheless, in his new feature, titled The Teachers’ Lounge [+see also:
trailer
interview: İlker Çatak
interview: Leonie Benesch
film profile] and screened in the Panorama strand of this year’s Berlinale, İlker Çatak gives himself – and accomplishes – no easy task. Most of the success of this film is down to the great depth that screenwriter Johannes Duncker and Çatak gift to their lead character. The more Carla tries to do something right – and, in many circumstances, logical in terms of pedagogical principles – the more she is pushed to her limits, put under pressure, marginalised and denounced. There’s a similar type of development going on with the other lead character, Oskar (the talented Leonard Stettnisch), Mrs Kuhn’s son and Carla’s pupil.

“What happens in the staff room stays in the staff room,” says Carla when interviewed by the school newspaper, after the scandal has already erupted. Similarly to Laura Wandel’s Playground [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laura Wandel
film profile], in The Teachers’ Lounge, Çatak builds up a well-defined microcosm exclusively living and breathing within the school’s walls. In particular, we realise how brutal and hypocritical an educational system may be under certain circumstances, even that of a developed, democratic country such as Germany. And, in contrast with this simple “snowball” narrative, Çatak touches in a very well-balanced fashion upon other complex issues that one can find in many school environments all around the world, such as respect for privacy, the discrimination of minorities, bullying, the role of overbearing parents and, more broadly, the boundaries of the teachers’ efforts.

The whole experience becomes even more rewarding when it comes to its resolution. The viewer may even believe that there are two endings, as the final sequence is clearly split into two parts, each having its own conclusion. It is a rare case of a “double” ending that actually makes sense. Both parts work well together and transform Çatak’s effort into a broader metaphor about the justness of law and power relations. It’s probably the best quality of this picture, and certainly something one wouldn’t expect to find in a school drama.

The Teachers’ Lounge was produced by Munich-based outfit if… Productions. Belgium’s Be For Films is in charge of its world sales.