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The Teachers’ Lounge Movie Review

The Teachers’ Lounge is a 2023 German drama film directed by Ilker Catak and starring Leonie Benesch. It’s a flawed, but interesting drama.

Teacher Carla Nowak decides to get involved when one of her students is suspected of theft. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her. This movie deals with a lot, even touching on the issue of race. Seeing a class with such racially diverse students in the middle of Germany reminds us that this country is quickly becoming a melting pot in the similar vein as the US, so of course they are going to have the class and racial divide stemming from that diversity.

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But the movie is in essence about all the things that can go wrong in the school setting, especially for the teacher. It’s further proof that this profession is the most horribly underpaid job out there, one that requires extreme patience and guts to brave through. The movie also showcases the foolishness of democratizing even the smallest environments such as one class in school. This leads to an overly extensive process to solve everything, which just further complicates the issue needlessly so.

My problem with The Teachers’ Lounge is its failure to make a statement about anything. These themes are there, but ultimately the movie is more of a thriller masquerading as a drama. It shows all the things that can go wrong for a teacher in today’s society, but it escalates things a bit too quickly in its second half while its first half is too slow in retrospect.

There is also the issue of a weak ending. It was a cop-out that seemed very uninteresting and frustrating for a film that demanded a much stronger final scene. I liked Leonie Benesch in the role, but it’s difficult to root for this protagonist as she’s too naïve and stupid in her actions. The kids needed better characterization overall, but the dynamics between kids, teachers and parents was very well depicted. The movie is also well shot, very well directed and competently made overall. It’s a shame that they did not know how to end the story properly.

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