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| llker Çatak, the director of Germany’s Oscar shortlisted The Teachers’ Lounge with Anne-Katrin Titze on Wim Wenders, the director of Japan’s Oscar shortlisted Perfect Days: “Wim is such a nice guy! He’s not my competitor, he’s one of my teachers.” |
Luc Dardenne and Young Ahmed (Le Jeune Ahmed), Laurent Cantet’s The Class (Entre Les Murs), Stéphane Brizé’s The Measure Of A Man, starring the unforgettable Vincent Lindon, and Gus Van Sant’s Elephant are four of the films that inspired llker Çatak’s outstanding The Teachers’ Lounge (Das Lehrerzimmer, co-written with Johannes Duncker). Shot by Judith Kaufmann (Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage, starring Vicky Krieps), edited by Gesa Jäger (Jakob Lass’s Love Steaks with Lana Cooper and Franz Rogowski; Anna Winger's Transatlantic and Maria Schrader's Unorthodox series with Shira Haas), stars a terrific Leonie Benesch (Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon).
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| Ms Nowak (Leonie Benesch) in the classroom with her students holding up their books Photo: Boris Laewen |
The Oscar shortlisted Best International Feature Film from Germany has an impressive supporting cast, including Eva Löbau (Maren Ade’s Der Wald Vor Lauter Bäumen and Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds), Leo Stettnisch, Rafael Stachoviak (Christian Petzold’s Undine), Michael Klammer, Sarah Bauerett, Anne-Kathrin Gummich, Kathrin Wehlisch, Oscar Zickur, Antonia Küpper, Elsa Krieger, Vincent Stachowiak, Can Rodenboste, Uygar Tamer, Özgür Karadeniz, Padmé Hamdemir, and Lisa Marie Trense.
Leonie Benesch gives a spectacular performance as Carla Nowak, an idealistic teacher confronted with much more than her class of 7th graders in llker Çatak’s The Teachers’ Lounge. Entirely taking place in one German school, the film unfolds into a portrait of our world today and where we stand in relation to truth and righteousness, accusations and justice.
The intense score (by Marvin Miller), the tight precision of the editing (by Gesa Jäger), the felicitous cinematography (by Judith Kaufmann) and the overall remarkable performances by the adults, as well as the perfectly-cast children, give the film the edge-of-your-seat quality of a thriller. Traps are lurking around every corner and a new definition of superhero may be up in the air. And yet, the film never leaves the realm of the Real. A “zero tolerance policy,” students turning against their teacher, shifting power dynamics, the best of intentions going awry - it all comes together in a choreography of suspicions.
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| Oskar (Leo Stettnisch) solving a math problem in front of Ms Nowak’s (Leonie Benesch) class Photo: Boris Laewen |
Thefts are reported in the school and a number of the colleagues, headed by the frustrated Thomas Liebenwerda (Michael Klammer) together with the director of the school, Dr. Böhm (Anne-Kathrin Gummich), try to find out who is doing it. This is a film very precise about language. Only Ms Nowak and one of the girls at the student paper are “gendering,” for instance. The first student suspected is Ali (Can Rodenboste). When his father (Özgür Karadeniz), after being summoned by Dr. Böhm to her office, speaks Turkish to his wife (Uygar Tamer), he is rather brusquely asked to switch to German. This moment is mirrored later on when colleague Milosz Dudek (Rafael Stachowiak) speaks Polish to Carla, an intimacy because of shared cultural background, she rejects. This time she is the one who asks that the other person speak German.
A blouse with yellow stars, worn by Ms Kuhn (Eva Löbau), who works in the administrative office, adds to the intrigue and becomes a nightmarish visual marker with echoes of a specifically German past. The spectrum of prejudice is wide-ranging and when the charges start to fly, no position of righteousness is safe anymore. A parent/teacher evening can topple into hell on earth and a seemingly harmless interview for the student newspaper can signal doom. School is the seeding ground for the future and The Teachers’ Lounge makes it very clear how much is at stake.
From Berlin, llker Çatak joined me on Zoom for an in-depth conversation on The Teachers’ Lounge.
Anne-Katrin Titze: Hi! Good to meet you!
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| Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch) in the teachers' lounge in her square-patterned cardigan Photo: Hanna Lenz |
llker Çatak: Likewise!
AKT: Congratulations on making the Oscar shortlist!
IC: I don’t know how that happened!
AKT: Yesterday [December 28] I emailed with Wim Wenders [also on the Oscar shortlist for Perfect Days] and he sends you his best!
IC: Wim is such a nice guy! He’s not my competitor, he’s one of my teachers. It’s an honor to be in the same spot with these big maestros, I want to say. I remember being in my early twenties watching his films, like understanding cinema. Now he’s texting me, saying congratulations! It’s a bit surreal, to be honest.
AKT: He wrote to me “He’s cool!”
IC: Me? [Ilker hides his face].
AKT: Don’t blush! Your editor, Gesa Jäger, I met in 2014 when we gave her an award at First Time Fest, here in New York. It was a festival for first time filmmakers and I was on the jury [with Stephanie Zacharek and Nicholas Haden-Guest]. She won the editing award.
IC: Wow! Was that for Love Steaks?
AKT: Yes!
IC: That’s a film that I watched and I remember sitting in the movie theatre, thinking, wow, this is very well edited. Ever since I kept track of what she was doing. She went on to make Unorthodox in Brooklyn with Maria Schrader [starring Shira Haas]. So when I approached her, we met in a Berlin restaurant and immediately it felt like I know this person already. We were so close immediately and she’s just a gem, just a wonderful human being.
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| Ms Nowak’s colleagues Thomas Liebenwerda (Michael Klammer) with Milosz Dudek (Rafael Stachowiak) Photo: Judith Kaufmann |
AKT: Her editing is what partly gives this film a thriller element and the sense of horror.
IC: Right, and the pace.
AKT: When I started watching the film, I thought it was maybe about two worlds colliding, an old school system with a newer system and then I realised no, no, that would be far too binary and far too simple. There are many different individuals and different systems all working together or against each other.
IC: Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of how contemporary this story is. I say unfortunately not about the fact that I didn’t know. But you have these people who want to reign, saying law and order, who want censorship. It’s not even one person against the system, it’s just how these societies work and how we as societies work. Me and my co-screenwriter, Johannes Duncker, were very much aware of the fact that once you make a film about school, it’s also a film about society.
We knew we wanted to make a film about a teacher who is actually a great teacher. We also knew she cannot be heroic. She’s a heroine but she does have flaws and she does things wrong. We didn’t want to say, here is the system and there is the heroine and the two of them clash. No, she’s also flawed and the system is flawed, so it wasn’t that we thought binary, but as a whole, I think.
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| Thomas Liebenwerda (Michael Klammer) and Milosz Dudek (Rafael Stachowiak) searching the students’ wallets Photo: Boris Laewen |
AKT: You start showing that already with that wonderful first scene. She is on the phone, colleagues are signaling something; we have no idea what’s going on. She writes a phone number on her hand and immediately you may think, what kind of school is this that has no paper and also why doesn’t she have any scrap paper with her?
IC: I remember writing that scene. Because I wanted something for the character where you can see that she is devoted. And children do that, children write things on their hands. I wanted to have that little thing; you never hear of that number again in the film. Just that little characterisation that she’s not as vain as not to get her hands dirty. At the same time there’s some pressure and she needs to put that number somewhere. That was basically the idea, to have this woman under pressure. You could call this film as well Under Pressure, you know.
AKT: There are so many layers to that pressure. The vocabulary ranges from “Sippenhaft” to “structural racism” and spans history. That historical component also includes the very interesting choice of blouse. One yellow star may have been too much on the nose. When did the yellow stars come in? When you have a film from Germany the signal is very clear.
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| The director of the school, Dr. Böhm (Anne-Kathrin Gummich) with Ms Nowak (Leonie Benesch) and Ms Kuhn (Eva Löbau) in the blouse with yellow stars Photo: Boris Laewen |
IC: You know what? You are actually the first journalist to ask this question. Also in all of the Q&As - and I’ve really had a lot of Q&As - there was one man in Canada, in Toronto, who asked about the blouse. For me it was that every society needs scapegoats and German society at some point said, we need a scapegoat and these people need to be expelled from our society. When I talked to Eva [Löbau], the actor, I said to her, you are innocent. No matter what, let’s make it you’re completely innocent. I want you to make this as innocent as possible. And that’s where we took it. I’m actually happy that you are one of the few who realises this. I never point it out myself. I want it to be subtle.
AKT: It also makes you think about the dream sequence, or the fantasy, and why this pattern was chosen. When Ms Nowak teaches, at first we see her almost like a conductor, reenforced by the score. Then she has that little song and the clapping. Is that the character’s own personal thing you made up or is this something common in German schools today?
IC: It’s something that I saw when I went to schools for the research while writing the script. There was one particular teacher who had this clapping thing at the beginning of a class. First I thought, these kids are a little too old to do that.
AKT: Yes, a bit like kindergarten.
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| Eva Löbau and llker Çatak behind the scenes Photo: Boris Laewen |
IC: It’s a bit kindergarten. But then I thought at some point that would actually be interesting to have the kids emancipate from that and say, you know, Ms Nowak, this is actually a bit embarrassing. Every time I see that scene where that little kid is like, by the way, you don’t do this with us, like first graders, the whole audience always laughs. It’s not a common thing, but some teachers apparently do it and I thought it’s very cinematic.
AKT: It is.
IC: And the whole conductor thing, the idea was that in the beginning she is like this conductor and then it slips away. So that in the end it’s not conducting anymore.
AKT: The orchestra is taking over.
IC: It’s a primal scream! And also, by the way, you can see it in the way she dresses. Towards the end it just loosens up. It’s basically also a story of how she loses control.
AKT: The little cardigan with the squares is also significant in the middle when she is trying to fit into the different squares and it doesn’t work.
IC: Yes.
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| Ms Nowak (Leonie Benesch) with her student Oskar (Leo Stettnisch) Photo: Judith Kaufmann |
AKT: The clapping song goes into telling them to lift up their books, lift up their folders. In the beginning we don’t know what she is teaching. Could she maybe be teaching German to students with different backgrounds, is what I thought. A subtle way to introduce that theme to us?
IC: Math and gym teacher, we thought is good.
AKT: But we don’t know that yet.
IC: Right. No, the thing with the books was another thing I picked up in the research where I was sitting in the classroom and there was this one particular teacher who was very severe, strict. And he said, I want to see your books! And I thought, wow, this is actually a very cool way of showing that somebody is in charge.
AKT: When the girls are asked to leave the room, it is mysterious. It makes us wonder. They knew it had to be a boy? Is it gender prejudice? Only the boys had to take out their wallets?
IC: I don’t know if I would have come up with this if that didn’t happen to us in our school time. That very scene, Johannes and I experienced when we were 15. There were two boys in our class who were stealing. I remember that one day three teachers came in and said, girls out, wallets on the table. I think they wanted the girls to be out because they already knew who the thief was. They wanted to lower the confusion level in the room - that’s the reason. But it’s something I’m not sure I would have come up with if I had not had that experience.
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| Vincent Lindon US theatrical première of Measure Of A Man, presented by Anne-Katrin Titze Photo: Ed Bahlman |
AKT: It adds an other layer of mystery to it. When the kids are questioned at the start, they are told, no need to talk, just nod while we’re going through the list. It made me think of the fairy tale of The Goose Girl, collected by the Brothers Grimm, in which the Goose Girl who had promised not to talk about what happened, is tricked by the King who tells her to speak to the stove instead.
IC: Alright!
AKT: Then it doesn’t count! I was thinking of this trickery.
IC: Unfortunately I also have to think again of German history in that scene. It’s the government basically asking you to snitch on your neighbor.
AKT: Right.
IC: And they’re trying to make it as easy as possible, but ultimately you have to live with that guilt. The other day I was asked what is so particular about Germany, what is German-specific? I had to think of the Metro. The whole system, when you go to London, Paris, and New York and you enter the Metro, you buy a ticket, go through the turnstiles, and you’re in the Metro. And it’s all done.
In Germany you can just enter the Metro and then some guy, disguised as a civilian, will trap you in there and say: where is your ticket? You are always enticed to not buy a ticket! Ah, if I don’t have the change and it’s just two stations, I will make it! This thing, where there’s somebody who is acting as if he’s one of your kind, and then all of a sudden you feel the law and order and that kind of thing, this is very German. That’s very German!
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| llker Çatak with cinematographer Judith Kaufmann Photo: Boris Laewen |
AKT: The idea of the Blockwart also, the unexpected surveillance.
IC: Right.
AKT: Were there films that inspired The Teachers’ Lounge?
IC: Absolutely! There was this film called Le Jeune Ahmed by the Dardenne brothers.
AKT: I spoke with them about it. It’s a great film.
IC: Oh really? That kid (Idir Ben Addi) was a great inspiration for our Oskar (Leo Stettnisch). There’s this other film called Entre les murs, by Laurent Cantet. It also takes place in just one school, where you see a miniature of French society.
AKT: I think it was called The Class here.
IC: Exactly. What else did we watch? There was this other French film, called The Measure Of A Man, by Stéphane Brizé.
AKT: Oh yes, with Vincent Lindon. I did the opening night Q&A with Vincent on that film! It’s in some respect a different subject, on the other hand it isn’t. Tell me how it inspired you!
IC: The way that film exploits the moral dilemma of this man. At some point he makes a decision and there are a couple of scenes. First of all, formally it was very gripping to me because every scene is just one shot. And then the way it plays out in a moral way I thought was very interesting.
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| Ms Nowak (Leonie Benesch) on the stairs of the school Photo: Boris Laewen |
How the system makes this man who actually just wants to work, become a detective and all of a sudden he realises that the people who steal in that store they also are forced because they don’t have the money. There is one scene with this elderly man and it’s so heartbreaking. Johannes and I, we watch a lot of films. Johannes is a guy who watches more films than anybody I know. We saw Maren Ade’s first film. I had not seen it, but I wanted to see Eva Löbau in her first role as a teacher.
AKT: I vaguely remember now, that’s why I recognised her face!
IC: Der Wald vor lauter Bäumen it’s called. Those were our inspirations, I think.
AKT: Any American films?
IC: Yes, when we started talking about visuality, Judith Kaufmann, my DP and I, it was Gus Van Sant’s Elephant, which is also shot in this aspect ratio and also takes place in a college.
AKT: It’s always intriguing how films influence each other. Judith Kaufmann also did Corsage, didn’t she?
IC: Yes.
AKT: Another school film that is in this Oscar race - did you see Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers yet?
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| The Teachers’ Lounge poster |
IC: No, I’m so sorry I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m hearing very very good things about it.
AKT: I just spoke with him and it’s a great movie!
IC: You spoke with Alexander Payne? Wow!
AKT: Yes, right before Christmas and there are a number of fascinating overlaps between the two films. Are you coming back to New York?
IC: I thought I would, because the film has been selected as one of the National Board of Review films, but apparently they need me in LA, so I won’t make it to New York in January. But I’m sure that I’ll come to New York at some point.
AKT: The first time I watched your film was actually on the plane and my seat neighbour had seen it at the Berlin Film Festival. He said, oh you’re watching this? It’s great, it’s about this woman who has great intentions and does everything wrong.
IC: You know what? The other day I read something and that just nailed it [he checks his notebook]: “The path to hell is paved with good intentions!”
AKT: That’s it, the perfect American proverb! Great to talk to you!
IC: Likewise!
AKT: I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you!
IC: Thank you so much and if you talk to Wim, please give him my best as well!
AKT: Say hi to Gesa and have a Happy New Year!
IC: You too!
The Teachers’ Lounge is in cinemas in the US and will open in the UK on March 22, 2024.
The final nominees are scheduled to be announced on Tuesday, January 23, 2024. The 96th Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, March 10 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
