The movie The Teachers’ Lounge was nominated for an Oscar for Best International Film. But that’s not why I wanted to see the German-made film. It’s because my wife’s a teacher.
There’s a difference between assumption and proof. That is a running theme in the film. Teacher Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch) tries to get to the bottom of one allegation of theft involving one of her students. The school bureaucracy handled the situation in a way not to her liking, and the taint of the allegation lingers.
Then another incident takes place, and the consequences of her actions are even more problematic and threaten to engulf the new math and gym teacher, who had originally been from Poland. Indeed, she also had to deal with her students cheating on a test, lying, bullying, and a student newspaper story about her, all deriving from that second incident.
We found the movie to be riveting and a bit unsettling. One of the few negative reviews – 97% positive – read, “Marred by such ridiculous decision-making that it’s difficult to take the proceedings seriously.” Having heard my wife kvetch about various decisions made by school administrators over the years, I know with certainty that that critic was never a teacher.
“Zero tolerance”
More common was this assessment: “The Teachers’ Lounge ultimately and intelligently focuses on more symbolic issues in a world where rules and formulas often fail to achieve the desired solution.” Yes. The school administrator threw around the term “zero tolerance” regarding policies that were muddily resolved, if at all.
Director/co-writer Ilker Çatak delivered “a snapshot of a society where we no longer trust one another.” An IMDb review noted that “morality, integrity, misplaced concern, racism, classism … these all play a role in delivering the message.”
Interestingly, the fan response was less enthusiastic, only 57% positive. Is it because it was in subtitles? I cannot say. Maybe it was that good intentions did not create positive results. I’m guessing here.
Of course, we saw this at the Spectrum 8 in Albany on Tuesday, the penultimate day under the auspices of Landmark.