staff room | Film-Rezensions.de

Young teacher Mrs. Nowak (Leonie Benish) takes a new position. Her teaching method and idealism bring a lot of fresh air to the rather dusty school, which has had a theft problem for some time. So she speaks forcefully against the student suspect. What seems to go well in class is met with a lack of understanding in the staff room. These tensions increase when it appears that the secretary is responsible for the thefts. In short order, Ms. Novak, who has expressed her suspicions against the secretary, finds herself in an unstoppable vortex of rumours, angry parents, dissatisfied students, and angry colleagues.

Education limits

with teacher’s room He succeeds the director and co-screenwriter Ilker Chatak A brilliant and decisive school portrait that lives above all by its originality. Almost everyone who has gone to school in Germany this millennium will be aware of their idiosyncrasies. Whether it’s sayings like “You can pick up the lighter from me after class”, the odd behavior with family names in the presence of students or the way children are asked suggestive questions before scolding them. By the way, the latter is shown wonderfully when, in the course of the film, such accusations are also made against adults and roles are distributed in the same way between students and teachers.

Despite this demonstration, which also provides one or the other funny moments, it is Teacher’s room Not a movie that looks angry. He remains discreet, observant, and raises questions. He doesn’t try to completely destroy the school system, but leaves that to the school itself, and in the end, everything shows dysfunction. A system in which the solution does not seem to be the optimal solution. A system where many people misbehave, but there is simply no room for error, without everything spiraling out of control and things taking a life of their own more than anything else. A system doomed to fail.

But even if Teacher’s room It takes so much individual guilt off its characters’ shoulders that in doing so, it’s not entirely hopeless. The lack of transparency towards children, true to the motto “what happens in the staff room, stays in the staff room”, is a major problem. The ironic and most frustrating thing about it is that this actually goes against Ms. Nowak’s pedagogical approach. It shows that without major system changes, no pedagogical approach works perfectly. The film only marginally shows that the authoritarian path simply is no longer appropriate. The fact that the anti-authoritarian trajectory does not work in this environment is the true insight of the film.

Pressure cooker for problems

This is incredibly frustrating and shows how little good teachers can often do. The fact that this fact completely poisons the mood in classrooms and staff rooms is the only logical conclusion. Solidarity with one another, both among students and in college, is very fragile and docile from the many different pressure situations that a school presents. Whether it is in the form of pressure to perform among students, pressure from understaffing in college or something completely different. To what extent this stress is the cause or merely a trigger is a separate discussion entirely, but it is clear that it is associated with and manifests many social problems. Be sexist or classic or , and he will go Teacher’s room Specifically, racism.

It also shows how unfiltered, unaffected children often absorb these things and how rumours, bullying, etc. are formed from them. The interesting thing is that it is the adults who form the corresponding scars. Children only reproduce. teacher’s room He realizes this and uses the school’s own thumbnail to represent it. The role the film attributes to the school is very interesting. He sees the school as a place that works like a prison. One group of people is not allowed to leave the premises easily and under the supervision of another group of people. These are not their superiors, but they are nevertheless in a systemic imbalance of power with them. In addition, both places are somewhat isolated from the outside world. They can only influence the outside world to a limited extent, but they are shaped by their structures and often reflect their problems more than anything else. School is not the place where problems are raised. It’s the pressure cooker that makes it. This realization may be more prominent in the movie, but the overall realization and emphasis on this stress is excellent.

Staging is largely responsible for this. The cold colors and aspect ratio of 4: 3, as well as the heavy music influenced by stringed instruments, convey a feeling of distress, restlessness and restlessness. The fact that the camera is so observant, almost voyeuristic, also supports this. Although isolated funny moments the chapter So it is also difficult to bear. This can be exaggerated and sometimes a bit repetitive, but on the one hand it’s never boring and only adds to the problem.

extra time: “teacher’s room”
nation: Germany
year: 2023
exit: Ilker Chatak
script: Ilker Chatak, Johannes Duncker
music: Marvin Miller
camera: Judith Kaufman
works: Leonie Benisch, Leonard Stetnich, Eva Loebow, Michael Kalmer, and Ann-Kathryn Gomich

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