The Teachers’ Lounge: Film Review
Ilker Çatak‘s German-language feature, The Teachers’ Lounge, made the shortlist for the Best International Feature Film Oscar this year. The calibre of that category was outstanding so the fact I ranked this second behind The Zone of Interest shows how excellent it is.
The film follows Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch), a new teacher at a secondary school in Germany. When one of the students is accused of theft, Nowak decides to turn detective and get to the bottom of the mystery. When she obtains evidence that she believes proves a member of staff did it, she takes her allegations to the top, believing she is serving justice. But when the alleged thief insists they’re innocent, Nowak ends up being punished for what she thought was a good deed.
The Teachers’ Lounge has been described as a drama but I think workplace thriller is more accurate. The situation escalates in a gripping way and it becomes a stressful watch. Çatak immerses you in the school and puts you in her shoes. You can’t help but feel sorry for Nowak – she had the best of intentions and they’ve come back to bite her in the butt.
While this story is about stealing, how it plays out could apply to many other situations in today’s cancel culture era. When it’s someone’s word against another there are often no winners. Novak’s reputation is tarnished too although she did nothing wrong. She really gets put through the wringer for speaking up. People think she’s a liar, but is she? I don’t often love ambiguity but it makes sense here because it is realistic for these dilemmas – you often don’t know who is telling the truth.
Benesch’s performance is pitch-perfect; you can tell Nowak’s trying so hard to appear calm when she’s internally screaming. It is subtle work but I really understood and rooted for the character. Naturally, given the setting, there are a lot of child actors. They are all brilliant but the stand out is Oskar (Leonard Stettnisch) as an antagonist figure who really tests Nowak.
The Teachers’ Lounge is a cleverly written thriller that feels very relevant in today’s accusatory climate.
In cinemas from Friday 12th April