Teacher Carla Nowak comes into the room with a brown shoulder bag. Your colleagues are already there. One of them, it is said, has already roughly outlined “the subject”. The school has been stealing for a long time. Two children are now sitting at the table who are obviously being persuaded to rat someone out. Nowak doesn’t like the situation.
The film “The Teacher’s Room” shows a number of scenes like this, which can feel uncomfortable just watching. Director Ilker Çatak tells the story of a school somewhere in Germany and a conflict that is getting out of control. One can also see it as a commentary on today’s debate culture.
A proof needs a derivation
Leonie Benesch (“The Swarm”, “Babylon Berlin”) plays the teacher. Carla Nowak teaches mathematics and physical education, seems relatively new and likes to greet the class with gossip rituals. When discussing a math problem, she emphasizes that the most important thing is that a proof always requires a derivation. “Step by step.”
They are also looking for evidence, or rather a perpetrator, at school. The teachers are concerned about the fact that objects keep disappearing. A teacher even thinks about a private detective.
The boys in a class are soon asked to put their purses on the table. This is of course voluntary, says the headmistress, “but if you have nothing to hide, you don’t need to worry.” A boy named Ali is then suspected, his mother later clarifies that she gave him the money. “Having money in your pocket isn’t a crime.”
And the colleagues?
It bothers Carla that only the student body is targeted, because some of her colleagues also seem shady to her. So she becomes active herself and now crosses a line: She secretly lets the camera on her laptop run in the staff room and her wallet in her jacket. When she leaves the room, explosive images emerge.
The drama by director Çatak has received seven nominations for the German Film Awards, including in the category of best film. The awards will be presented on May 12th. The Berlinale showed the film in the Panorama section. Çatak has already shown with “The spoken word counts” that he can take up unusual stories and tell a lot with them.
His new film is also quite popular, although the story only takes place at school. He shows a microcosm between stacks of paper in the staff room and sports mats in the gym. A world that many still remember, even if their school days are long gone.
The dialogue threatens to be lost
The film tells something about the dynamics that can arise between people. The teacher wants to protect the children and is doing something that has a snowball effect, Çatak told the broadcaster “Arte”. Then it’s about much more than just theft. Even through social media like Twitter there is no longer any dialogue. “It’s all about being right and on the right side. And making the other person small.”
The school model is a good place to depict society on a small scale, he continued. For him it is important how a person behaves in stressful situations? And what if he had to make a decision? That says something about the character.
The film also owes its intensity to the actors, for example Eva Löbau in a central role. Çatak said in the interview that they spent time in schools and looked at the everyday life of teachers to do their research. They noticed that a lot was happening there at the same time. You would have tried to accommodate this constant overstrain, which characterizes the everyday life of teachers in Germany, in the film.
“The teacher’s room” is also an examination of power structures and prejudices, with one’s own compass and human togetherness. He shows how things take on a life of their own and form fronts between people. A film worth seeing.
The teacher’s room, Germany 2023, 94 minutes, FSK from 12 years, by İlker Çatak, with Leonie Benesch, Leonard Stettnisch, Eva Löbau, Michael Klammer, Anne-Kathrin Gummich
