The Teacher’s Lounge [Review]
Germany’s Best Foreign Language Academy Awards submission is a gripping, tense, relevant thriller.
Leonie Benesch as Carla Nowak. Photo credit: if Productions, Judith Kaufmann. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
In The Teacher’s Lounge, Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch) is a young teacher in her first semester teaching 7th grade in a German Sekundarstufe I (lower seconday) school. She’s well liked by her students and gets along with the rest of the staff, a status that slowly begins to unravel beginning the first inciting incident in the film, a microcosm of the events that will follow: after a series of petty thefts, the staff accuses a student using information given under duress by the grade’s class representatives. The students are later “voluntarily” searched. Disagreeing with the staff’s methods and the transparently racially motivated accusation ultimately proven false, Nowak sets a trap—she leaves her wallet in her coat in the teacher’s lounge and uses her laptop to record clandestine video.
Money indeed gets stolen from Nowak’s wallet. She views the video and clearly recognizes the thief is wearing a blouse that matches the one worn by one of the front office secretaries, Ms. Kuhn (Eva Löbau). When confronted, Kuhn vehemently denies the accusation. The same thing happens when confronted by the principal, where Kuhn breaks down while denying involvement and is put on leave pending investigation. To make things more complicated, Kuhn’s son is one of Nowak’s students. This is where things begin spiraling out of control; Nowak keeps trying to do the right thing but her situation only gets worse.
Leonie Benesch as Carla Nowak. Photo credit: Boris Laewen. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
The movie examines truth and post-truth and how it affects discourse in our society. How is it possible to deny truth when there’s incontrovertible evidence? When do we let emotions outweigh sense and blind us? How do regulations and personalities work to thwart a person from being able to do the right thing, despite her sound logic? How do surveillance, instant online communication, and the media affect all this? These are a lot of questions, and The Teachers’ Lounge wrestles with them within the confines of its German middle school mirroring society at large.
The Teachers’ Lounge is an affecting drama, elevated by Ilker Çatak and Johannes Duncker’s script and director Çatak’s execution into an intense thriller. Composer Marvin Miller’s score contributes a lot to that feeling, ratcheting tension at every turn, as we wait for every well intentioned decision Carla Nowak makes to get twisted into a deepening disaster. The emotional intensity also increases as we’re almost completely restricted to her point of view, the crushing pressure palpable in the film’s claustrophobic 4:3 aspect ratio.
I admire the filmmakers’ choice to isolate the lead character to only her life within the school. We don’t get any view into Nowak’s private life, economic status, or beliefs. In an interview that was part of the films’ production notes, director Çatak said he made this choice because “a person's character always reveals itself in difficult moments of decision… [when] under stress, when they have to deal with problems.” This makes her more relatable, and it was interesting to view her actions and motivations under this lens.
Leo Stettnisch as Oskar. Photo credit: if Productions, Judith Kaufmann. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
To that end, Leonie Benesch delivers an outstanding, emotionally charged performance as Carla. The other standout performance comes from young Leo Stettnisch, playing Oskar, the son of alleged thief Ms. Kuhn and one of Carla’s favorite students that she strives to protect from his growing pain and doubt over the accusations, even when he lashes out in different ways.
The Teachers’ Lounge was Germany’s submission to this year’s Oscars. There will be intense competition in its category as 2023 was a very strong year for movies abroad. Several other countries’ submissions will see US release in the month ahead, so I have yet to see many more, but so far this film is a strong contender.
The Teachers’ Lounge is in theaters in select cities now, and will expand to more markets on January 26, distributed by Sony Pictures Classics.
