The official German Oscar entry for Best International Feature is an insular, pulse-pounding thriller set within the confines of a school that, for cinematic purposes, doubles as a microcosm of society in general circa 2023 where facts don’t matter, misinformation is rampant, suspicions run hot, divisions run deep, racism still rears its ugly head, and no one can be quite sure where, and even if they want to, fit in.
A critical hit beginning at Berlin, and then winning much talk at Telluride, Toronto and AFI festivals, this fascinating movie is a Blackboard Jungle of a different stripe, but still one that puts a critical finger on our educational institutions by way of the human scope. That it is shot (by cinematographer Judity Kaufmann) in a claustrophobic 4:3 aspect ratio only adds to the tension created by co-writer (with Johannes Duncker) and director Ilker Çatak (a past student Academy Award...
A critical hit beginning at Berlin, and then winning much talk at Telluride, Toronto and AFI festivals, this fascinating movie is a Blackboard Jungle of a different stripe, but still one that puts a critical finger on our educational institutions by way of the human scope. That it is shot (by cinematographer Judity Kaufmann) in a claustrophobic 4:3 aspect ratio only adds to the tension created by co-writer (with Johannes Duncker) and director Ilker Çatak (a past student Academy Award...
- 12/15/2023
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
At the large, modern school where the contentious events of The Teachers’ Lounge unfurl, Carla Nowak is the newbie instructor, fresh-faced and eager. By the end of the film, she’s more chastened and anxious than bursting with gung-ho spirit — which is not to say she’s been defeated by the insanity around her. But she has learned a thing or two about the absurdity of organizational politics in the digital age of the antisocial socials, laid bare in İlker Çatak’s pointed yet never simplistic drama.
The outside world is barely glimpsed in the movie, and the microcosmic significance of the school premises, somewhere in Germany, couldn’t be clearer. As a smaller version of a contemporary tinderbox, the community of teachers, students, administrators and office workers that Çatak and his cast inhabit never feels overly weighted with symbolism. Its powder-keg dynamics are fully alive and infuriating, even as they transparently replicate,...
The outside world is barely glimpsed in the movie, and the microcosmic significance of the school premises, somewhere in Germany, couldn’t be clearer. As a smaller version of a contemporary tinderbox, the community of teachers, students, administrators and office workers that Çatak and his cast inhabit never feels overly weighted with symbolism. Its powder-keg dynamics are fully alive and infuriating, even as they transparently replicate,...
- 10/4/2023
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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