“The Teacher’s Room”: a sinister, bitter drama of self-righteousness NDR.de – Culture – Film

by Walli Mueller

If you want to have a tutor for your children, then you should choose her: Carla Nowak, played by Leonie Benesch, is young, enthusiastic, patient and understanding when dealing with children. Their methods are also impressive. This pedagogical maths teacher is watching when the headmistress makes some kind of raid on her classroom. There has been a series of thefts in the school for a long time, which now need to be eliminated.

in an ethical dilemma

It is written on the perfect teacher’s face how everything in her resists such an approach. In fact, there is a false suspicion of a Turkish boy – which is very embarrassing for her. And so Carla does something that looks smart, but turns out to be the opposite: she leaves money in the staff room and the laptop camera rolls. The trap snaps open, and a woman from the college appears to be exposed as a burglar. Because, when discreetly asked about it, she denies everything, Carla turns on the director. But which is more outrageous: the alleged thief’s brazen denials – or the young teacher’s espionage work?

The more the main character tries to calm down, the more the situation slips away from her. And the audience ends up in a moral quandary with her – this is how İlker Çatak’s drama is so convincingly built.

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Preview: The Teacher’s Room: Drama Trailer from Hamburg (2 mins)

School as a reflection of our society

Chatak’s The Teacher’s Room is not about questioning the school as a system, but using it as a microcosm of society: the hierarchical structures, the multicultural mix in the classroom and the prejudices that still go hand in hand with it. It is also about the rivalries in the college and last but not least the high ethical standards that put faculty members under pressure. Even the smallest misconduct can lead to social media.

“The film is about our culture of debate, the search for truth, the search for justice, and the distortion of the truth,” says Ilker Çatak. “It’s about fake news, about cancel culture. It’s about how a teacher can do everything right and yet do some things wrong.”

More information

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The Teacher’s Room: A great cinematic experience

In mathematics, there are 100 percent correct solutions – unfortunately not when dealing with conflicts, as Karla Novak has to painfully discover. The Teacher’s Room is a bitter lesson in self-righteousness. There is something both comical and tragic about the fact that a person with the best intentions sets the worst chain reaction in motion. This drama eludes a clear read – and an all the more interesting cinema experience!

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4 minutes

The drama “Das Lehrerzimmer” filmed in Hamburg and the literary adaptation “When will it be like never before” will be shown at the film festival. 4 minutes

5 minutes

Director Ilker Çatak made a harrowing drama about a teacher who ends up in a moral dilemma. 5 minutes