'The Teacher's Lounge' tells the story of teacher who cares - review

So much of what goes on in schools is nonsense, and often quite unpleasant nonsense, that it’s a miracle children ever learn anything. The new German movie, The Teachers’ Lounge, which just opened at theaters around Israel, reminds us of that fact – and then some.

Directed by Ilker Catak and nominated for a Best International Feature Oscar this year, the film is impeccably acted and has some suspense built into its plot. Ultimately, though, it’s a frustrating film that may make you grateful if you are no longer involved in the school system.

The Teachers’ Lounge tells the story of Carla (Leonie Benesch), a young, caring math teacher to a sixth-grade class at a school that looks like a resort compared to the typical run-down Israeli school. She’s cordial with her colleagues, but doesn’t seem to be really close to any of them. We only see her at school, where all of the action, except for one scene, takes place. 

She never mentions a partner or children, and there aren’t any of those obligatory sad-single-woman scenes in a quiet apartment, where a character microwaves some prepared meal and grimaces when she takes a bite, which many movies use to show their heroine’s empty personal life. 

Like her students and colleagues, we know her only in her professional context: an elegantly beautiful, energetic woman, dressed in really nice sweaters (you have time to notice them, since she is in virtually every scene), who often stays after the rest of the staff has gone home, grading tests or preparing lessons.

But while the school’s campus is idyllic looking, there are problems there. There have been a rash of thefts affecting both pupils and faculty, and two staff members, Milosz (Rafael Stachowiak, who appeared in Avi Nesher’s film Past Life) and Thomas (Michael Klammer) get a tip that it’s Ali (Can Rodenbostel), a boy from a Turkish immigrant family. They search the pupils’ wallets and discover that he has a lot of cash. When they confront his parents, his mother says she gave him the money to buy a birthday present, so the culprit is still at large.

Carla plans to catch the thief

CONCERNED ABOUT the identity of the thief, Carla sets up her laptop to record video in the titular lounge, and after she is robbed, she reviews the video and thinks she has caught an administrative staff member, Frau Kuhn (Eva Lobau) red-handed. When she goes to the principal (Anne-Kathrin Gummich), she is told that she doesn’t have the right to surreptitiously record video of her colleagues.

Nevertheless, the principal and Carla go ahead and accuse Kuhn, who just happens to be the mother of Oskar (Leonard Stettnisch), Carla’s most gifted student. Kuhn is placed on leave, pending an investigation. But long before the investigation can be completed, the accusation destabilizes the fragile eco-system of the school, turning just about everyone against Carla, for different reasons.

Particularly unpleasant is a parent-teacher night, where the appalled parents all attack Carla verbally, having been whipped into a frenzy of hate by Kuhn in the parents’ WhatsApp chat group.

Nearly everyone is against Carla, who actually backs down on her accusation early on and feels that perhaps it would be best to drop the whole thing. I was left wondering what the point of the movie was, especially since Carla isn’t portrayed as a defiant crusader for justice, who fights a corrupt system. She folds as soon as the principal says that her videotape is probably illegal, and that happens early on. 

Is the story meant to show that no one – pupils and their families, as well as the staff – can handle the truth? Is it a parable on the dangers of groupthink and mob rule? Carla’s parents were Polish immigrants, and several students and teachers are from Turkish backgrounds, but it was never clear whether their backgrounds played into the outcome.

Benesch, who played Prince Philip’s sister in The Crown and who was Greta in Babylon Berlin, is good at conveying the enthusiasm of a young teacher, and you root for her against the school. A scene where she leads all her pupils in a collective scream is theatrically effective, but it doesn’t bring any catharsis. 

While the movie raises more questions than it answers, it makes one thing very clear: Even though Carla is a caring, devoted teacher, once the scandal gets started, these kids aren’t learning much math.