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Teachers are remarkable people. Each week, they work to educate students while also working with their challenges and special needs—and just the drama and chaos of being a kid. But when one caring educator decides to stand up for her students in the German drama The Teachers’ Lounge (Das Lehrerzimmer), everything at the school quickly spins out of control.
The Teachers’ Lounge gets caught up in a difficult situation with sixth-grade teacher Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch). When a number of thefts take place around the school, the administration takes serious steps to find the thief—steps that seem harsh and unfair and possibly even prejudicial to Ms. Nowak. So when one of her students is wrongfully accused, she decides to take matters into her own hands. But while her own investigation uncovers a thief, it also puts her in an increasingly difficult position with her students, the parents, and her colleagues.
As the old saying goes, “No good deed goes unpunished.” And though Ms. Nowak has the best of intentions—wanting to find the real thief, to save her students from unfair investigations and suspicions—her own amateur investigation causes all kinds of unexpected problems for the new teacher and the rest of the school. Her sleuthing may provide solid evidence about the thief’s identity, but it doesn’t make her the hero that you might expect. Instead, it makes her an outsider among her fellow teachers, who no longer trust her—and it makes her students turn on her.
No one is completely without blame in this tense and rather chaotic drama. The school’s process of uncovering the accused thief will make viewers incredibly uncomfortable—for good reason—as will the teachers’ assumptions and accusations. But even Ms. Nowak makes her own assumptions, causing her to jump into her own questionable investigation that ends up putting her at the center of the school’s attention for all the wrong reasons.
As the tension gradually builds, the film challenges viewers to consider this school’s difficult situation from different perspectives. And when it comes to an end, it will leave you with a whole lot to discuss with your friends on the way home from the theater.
The Teachers’ Lounge isn’t as fast-paced as the Hollywood version would be—which means that some viewers may lose interest. But if you stick with it, you’ll be rewarded with a challenging and suspenseful Oscar nominee.
You can draw your own conclusions when The Teachers’ Lounge continues to expand to select theaters.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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