“Think before you speak” is a common aphorism used to teach children to think about the consequences of the things they say. It’s so simple, and something we’ve heard so often, that it’s easy to take it for granted. But when we hear the phrase spoken in The Teachers’ Lounge, it sticks out as the film’s urgent thesis.
From Turkish-German director Ilker Catak, The Teachers’ Lounge, focuses on a series of petty thefts that disrupts daily life in a middle school. Carla Novak (Leonie Benesch) is our protagonist, a 6th-grade teacher who comes across circumstantial evidence that suggests another teacher (and parent), Friederike Kuhn (Eva Lobau) may be the perpetrator. As a seemingly well-respected, modern and idealistic teacher, Novak seems reassured that an adult is at fault rather than one of her students. Hoping to put an end to the kids’ persecution by the school’s admin, she confronts Kuhn and gives her a chance to own up to her crime. Kuhn vehemently denies the charges and is enraged by the accusation. The situation quickly worsens as the presumption of guilt spreads like wildfire to all those involved, and debate over who and what is right and wrong pits teachers, students and parents against each other.
Catak presents the points of view of a range of characters: Novak seeks the truth, the school administrator aims to keep the school functioning as normal, the accused Kuhn and her son seek retribution for being cast as thieves, and student journalists want to share the story with all those affected. Catak’s success is that he portrays these differing views in a very human way, where each character is shown to be doing what they feel is right. The audience sees how even good people and institutions can lose their grip under the right set of stressful circumstances. It’s easy to connect to modern themes like cancel culture as we see the effects that mere accusations can have, even when born of good intentions.
Catak’s decision to use a middle school as a setting to examine this theme proves a clever one. On one hand, the students are juvenile and are quick to ridicule, cheat and lie. But on the other hand, their innocence gives them clean slates, and they’re largely free of ulterior motives or politics. The simpler students embody the idealism that Novak preaches, which contrasts with the more complicated reality that she actually experiences over the course of her investigation, despite her good intentions. Novak embodies the idealistic teacher who wants disagreements to be resolved like a Socratic seminar, in which questions are asked and pros and cons are weighed. But the reality is that people take things personally, and mere accusations are enough to destabilize otherwise friendly dynamics between people. Careers can be derailed by speculation meant to resolve petty crimes, and a modest school newspaper can be a tool to defame and throw around speculation under lofty pretenses of free speech. In short, sometimes you can’t get the cat back in the bag and situations can spiral out of control quickly.
The Teachers’ Lounge is an impressive second feature for Catak. Though the plot rarely gets overly intense or dramatic, it keeps the audience immersed, reminiscent of a murder mystery despite lower stakes and the absence of some grand web of lies. A tense score composed of plucked chords and vibrato that elicits feelings of uneasiness along with a realistic and familiar setting causes the film to feel especially grounded in reality. Even though its reach never exceeds its grasp, the film feels exceedingly poignant.
Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
The post The Teachers’ Lounge appeared first on Spectrum Culture.