A few years ago, we saw one of the most extraordinary examinations of the art of education in Maria Speth’s incredible Mr Bachmann and His Class, in which the titular subject – a hardworking German schoolteacher – is given the chance to showcase his various joys and challenges that come with choosing this vocation. Now, we have received a very similar film, albeit one from a slightly different perspective in the form of The Teacher’s Lounge (German: Das Lehrerzimmer), which looks at similar ideas, just from a decidedly less endearing viewpoint. The reason for comparing these two films, even just initially, is because of how they offer interesting observations on the German school system and seem to exist in dialogue with one another, despite their different approaches to looking at the lives of teachers. Written and directed by Ilker Çatak, this film is a fascinating and tense character study that focuses on Carla, a new teacher at a relatively decent school who finds herself embroiled in controversy after an attempt to catch the thief who has been silencing and terrorizing the school results in a major backlash, particularly after she decides to use unconventional means to catch the culprit, not realizing the lack of legality in her decision, which sows discord amongst students, their parents and the faculty itself, all of whom turn on Carla as she tries to navigate her way out of this dreadful situation. Complex and compelling in ways that are genuinely quite surprising, The Teacher’s Lounge is an incredibly poignant and thought-provoking film that dares to venture into more challenging territory, evolving into a disconcerting depiction of the human condition, one that is much deeper than a surface-level glance may lead the prospective viewer to believe. Directed with precision and a genuine sense of curiosity, and driven by layers of complexity, the film is quite a fascinating document of a particular system, and the various people who become its victims without any changes ever being made to improve conditions, for reasons that we slowly start to understand as we venture into the world as set out by the director in this disconcerting psychological drama.

From its first moments, The Teacher’s Lounge immediately earns our attention, which is primarily done by forcing us to dive directly into the story. We are introduced to the faculty and student body of this small, unassuming school – their routines, method of teaching and interactions form the foundation of the first act, which is in itself a masterful piece of directing, with Çatak weaving through these hallways and classrooms with a sharp precision that immediately situates us right at the heart of this story. It is primarily a character study about a young, idealistic teacher who is dedicated to her students and is trying to fit in with her colleagues, which leads her to make the misguided decision to take matters into her own hands in the aftermath of rising tensions. It’s a bold and complex examination of someone who genuinely believed she was doing something to help everyone but turns everyone against her in the process, which only causes even more tension that turns our protagonist into persona non grata and causes her to be plunged into an existential crisis as she realizes that her valiant efforts had less-than-ideal results. Much of the success of the film comes in how the main character is constructed, which is a credit to both the director and central actor Leonie Benesch, who takes on the role and turns in one of the most layered, complex performances of the year. As a character study, it was vitally important that the performances were strong enough to keep us engaged, and even beyond Benesch’s incredible work, the entire ensemble works together in perfect synchronicity, whether it’s the younger actors cast as the students (with Leonard Stettnisch being most notable, for reasons I would not dare spoil) or those playing the protagonist’s peers, particularly Eva Löbau, whose presence here reminds us of her role in another extraordinary social drama about the German school system, Maren Ade’s A Forest for the Trees, in which she plays quite a similar character to the protagonist of this film. It’s a wonderful ensemble that is engaging helps move the story along in interesting and exciting ways, and establishes a clear and concise direction that is followed in terms of creating such a memorable and layered experience.

Çatak has been directing for a few years, and while The Teacher’s Lounge is by far the closest he’s come to a major international breakthrough, he has a solid body of work that suggests that he has enough credibility to immediately earn our praise, especially in terms of the more abstract ideas that exist at the heart of his films, all of which are social dramas with underlying messages about the communities in which they take place. There are points in The Teacher’s Lounge where we begin to wonder whether he was using this story as an entry point into discussing broader issues, and while at first, we may think this is only our inherent sense of trying to assert other factors into a relatively simple story, it becomes clear that he has made a film that functions as both a demonstration of the German school system, as well as an allegory for society as a whole. In many ways, the film becomes most interesting when these developments start to occur, and the school in which the story takes place becomes its social microcosm, a representation of the outside world. It’s interesting that the entire film takes place within this school, and there isn’t a single scene set anywhere other than this institution, which not only creates a sense of isolation, it proves to be a method of encapsulating the entire outside world into this one building. Some of Çatak’s methods may overshoot the mark by a few paces, but it is still quite interesting to see how he navigates the challenge of using something like a school as a representation of much larger systems – the school newspaper becomes the press, a parent-teacher conference becomes a kangaroo court and several other attempts to blur the familiar aspects of education with much bigger themes are fascinating, and elevate this film far beyond being a run-of-the-mill social drama. While it is clear that good allegory does not need to make itself obvious to be effective, it is also true that the best kinds of stories are those that set out their intentions and work to encapsulate them all with vigour and honesty, and it is clear that every aspect of The Teacher’s Lounge is superbly well-formed and worth each moment we spend with these characters.

Several moving parts were required to make The Teacher’s Lounge work, which is precisely why it is far less simple than it appears to be at a cursory glance. What starts as a relatively straightforward story turns out to be quite complex, and there were many aspects that the director needed to perfect before even conceiving of getting to the central subject. This film is a masterful demonstration of how to navigate complex ideas without becoming convoluted, particularly in terms of heightening tensions to the point where it becomes challenging, but never unbearable.  Çatak understands that discomfort is a powerful artistic tool, and when done correctly it can be an incredible narrative device, particularly in terms of establishing a specific tone. In much the same way that this film is driven by the characters, there is a lot of work done to create a specific atmosphere – and with these two elements effectively being mastered, the film can do just about anything with the material, which proves to be unexpectedly complex in ways that could be considered quite surprising. There are moments of humour scattered throughout that exist solely to lighten the mood and relieve some of the tension, but it eventually becomes quite satirical in itself, without being overtly funny, a decision that may seem quite strange, but ultimately does work in the film’s favour, particularly in those moments of quiet resilience in which the characters are asked to look within themselves to try and find some sense of self-reflective truth in this increasingly hostile environment they are forced to navigate. Tonally, The Teacher’s Lounge is quite a striking achievement, and its simplicity proves to be quite an interesting artistic choice since it lays out its unfurnished concepts and puts the onus on the viewer to come up with our moral judgement, which is a peculiar way of exploring something like human ethics and honesty, but one that ultimately proves to be the most impactful element of this film, and one of the many reasons it proves to be such a resounding, undeniable success.

The Teacher’s Lounge is far more captivating than we may have initially expected, and it would not be rare to find a genuine level of surprise coming from those who anticipated a more straightforward, dull social drama when in reality it is as tense and provocative as seemingly more ambitious films. The surface may seem quite simple, but there is something much more compelling once we look deeper, which is precisely why this is unexpectedly one of the year’s most engaging films for several reasons, many of which we have outlined above. They say that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and this film is the perfect encapsulation of this hackneyed but relevant adage since we have all undoubtedly found ourselves in situations where our belief in doing what is right turns out to cause more damage than it does help others, a sad reality that we all face at some point. Punctuated by some incredibly insightful moments, each one detailed and exceptionally compelling in its own right, and driven by a sense of genuine honesty, the scope of which is often the element that informs most of the film, The Teacher’s Lounge proves to be an incredibly sharp, witty psychological drama that looks into the dynamic between teachers, students and parents as they make their way through the challenging ecosystem that is the world of education, and often reminding us of a stage play in terms of its heightened tensions and limited locations (both incredible artistic choices that elevate the film considerably), the film proves to be quite an extraordinary achievement, a bold and insightful drama about common issues and how the most valiant of efforts can spiral into something far more sinister as a result of the inherent corruption of social standards. Compelling in a way that is unexpectedly deep, and driven by a sense of morality that is sometimes ambigious but never entirely questionable, the film provides a fascinating snapshot into a system we all believe we understand, but very rarely grasp entirely, since it exposes a much darker side of something seemingly positive and ingrained in our society, which has now been repurposed into something much deeper and more unsettling, but not any less exhilarating when placed into the capable hands of this director and his excellent collaborators.