By John Corrado

The Teachers’ Lounge is Nominated for Best International Feature at the 96th Academy Awards

Stolen cash leads to accusations of racial profiling and a growing culture of distrust between faculty and students in director Ilker Çatak’s Oscar-nominated film The Teachers’ Lounge, a tautly executed middle school drama that often moves like a paranoid thriller.

The film is set at a German middle school, where new teacher Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch) is still learning the ropes, though enjoys a good repertoire with the seventh grade students in her math and PE classes. But she finds herself caught in the middle following a series of mysterious thefts, when one of the students in her class is accused of stealing money.

The investigation is poorly handled by faculty, who round the boys up for questioning and expect them to empty their wallets, automatically treating certain kids like suspects. Things begin to unravel further when Carla grows suspicious of the school’s beloved secretary Friederike (Eva Löbau). Tensions start to rise in the break room, with Friederike’s son Oskar (Leonard Stettnisch) – who also happens to be in Carla’s class – becoming involved.

Set almost entirely within the school, director Çatak – who co-wrote the screenplay with Johannes Duncker – skillfully builds tension and suspense out of this deceptively simple setup. Similar to how Alexander Payne’s Election used high school politics to brilliantly satirize the American political system, The Teachers’ Lounge uses the inner-workings of this German school to offer a microcosm of society unravelling around issues of class and race (Carla is Polish, but careful to only speak German at work, and the boy who’s accused of stealing the money is Turkish).

Çatak, who himself was born in Berlin of Turkish descent, nimbly explores these rising tensions, many of which go unvoiced but are constantly felt bubbling beneath the surface. While The Teachers’ Lounge is largely told from the perspective of the educators, the film begins to resemble the classic YA book The Chocolate War as students begin to take sides and find ways to rebel against the system that they feel is treating them unfairly.

Benesch is excellent in the leading role as a teacher trying desperately to regain control of her classroom, as is the young actor Stettnisch, who confidently holds his ground as a battle of wits develops between educator and jaded pupil. The boxy 1.37:1 cinematography by Judith Kaufmann captures drab interiors of the school, turning the sterile classrooms and maze-like hallways into a sort of claustrophobic prison, as Marvin Miller’s unsettling musical score adds to the well-paced film’s surprising intensity.

Film Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)

The Teachers’ Lounge is now playing in theatres in limited release, including at TIFF Lightbox in Toronto. It’s being distributed in Canada by Mongrel Media.