The Teachers’ Lounge: A Thrilling Schoolyard Drama
The Teachers’ Lounge is a gripping schoolyard thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
From the haunting violin notes of the intro to its ambiguous, triumphant final scene, The Teachers’ Lounge is an enthralling film that delves into the complexities of a German secondary school. Idealistic young teacher Carla Nowak, played with anxious intensity by Leonie Benesch, is a new arrival at the school. Well-meaning and empathetic, she is the conductor of a peaceful classroom. A shot of Carla from behind, her arms beautifully outstretched, suggests this is her daily orchestra.
But when a student of Turkish origin is accused of stealing money, and Carla’s own surveillance of the teachers’ lounge indicates the guilt of Friederike Kuhn, an administrative staff member, we realize she’s far from in control. Carla’s star pupil, Lukas (Mrs. Kuhn’s son), resents the accusation aimed at his mother. The students rally around him, and the teachers, divided by internal disagreements, seem almost powerless to assert control.
“Outside of truth, everything else is just PR.”
The path to maturity for the students seems not to lie in compromising their ideals but in sticking to them ever more fiercely. It’s a wonderful inversion of what the Germans call Bildung, the tradition which examines the formative years of youth, marked as it is by a certain moral education. But the students cede no ground. They are uninterested in the murky give-and-take of the adult world. Their world is zero sum.
Indeed, it is the teachers’ uncertain sense of themselves as disciplinarians and moral leaders that provides so much fuel for the plot. They do not know who they are, and the students grasp it quickly. Carla in particular has ideals, but does she really believe in them? The film satirizes the speed at which the right to privacy, freedom of the press, and the concept of innocent until proven guilty are upended in the search for a thief.
The Teachers’ Lounge moves so briskly that viewers can be forgiven for failing to notice that on Carla’s surveillance video, Mrs. Kuhn’s blouse is patterned with little stars. It’s a knowing nod to Germany’s tragic past. That Mrs. Kuhn also represents a slightly different power struggle within the school – between the teachers and the administrative staff – adds more complexity to The Teachers’ Lounge. One can only hope that the next films concerning the consequences of accusation are so richly engaging.
Verdict: Five Stars
