The Teachers’ Lounge [2023] – ★★★

The Teachers’ Lounge brews a storm in a cup of tea.

This German film is a recent Academy Award nominee as the Best International Film, but despite its polished look, the script has cracks. In this story, Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch) is a strict, but fair math teacher in a secondary school in Germany. When a series of thefts starts to plague the school, Nowak begins to experiment to catch the person responsible, but her actions have far-reaching consequences as her moral stance goes head-to-head with the school system.

As Hollywood’s love for its blockbuster machine and remakes continues, foreign-language cinema has been making leaps and bounds in terms of depth, complexity and quality of its film offerings. The Teachers’ Lounge is no exception. The German-language film brims with intensity and control, providing one immersive experience for its audience…at least speaking in terms of its polished presentation and cinematography. And, as an American film set in school is often glad to limit itself to the exploration of gun crime or school cliques, its international counterpart is focused on something subtler this time, such as the high-stress environment that the newbie teacher in this case soon finds herself in when dealing with a series of unprecedented matters.

Workplace-focused films are rather underrated and single character-based films often have much to offer. In this regard, the film holds its on, as does the lead actress here – Leonie Benesch. There is intensity and urgency in each frame, as the film plays with a series of very uncomfortable situations that are happening within closed doors and deal with one community of teachers. It is brilliant and…exasperating as Nowak’s attention constantly shifts in the film, and we do not even know whether the drama should be the injustice committed against Nowak, against one boy implicated in a theft, against his mother or maybe even against pupils as a whole. In the end, the film even seems to send a rather worrying message that condones school violence based on certain suspect justifications.

Petty crime is a serious issue, the firing of a staff member over this is also very serious, as the effect this has on children, but the film is not focusing on these per se, but rather on Nowak’s very emotional response to her doing the right thing, and then to a series of misunderstandings and baffling conclusions. It is this that makes The Teachers’ Lounge a bit too much of a fuss over strange things, as well as a far-fetched and puzzling drama, especially at the film’s end. Perhaps the film tried to assimilate certain persecution/fight for justice ideas inherent in another film, this time Danish The Hunt, starring Mads Mikkelsen, but The Teachers’ Lounge‘s script neither raises the high stakes to match that, nor offers any other grounds to build upon. Could it have been just forty-minutes-long and say as much? Yes.

Although The Teachers’ Lounge is a fine piece of film-making with some originality in presentation, intense sequences and top-notch acting from Leonie Benesch, the script’s direction/misplaced drama ultimately lets it down.