THE TEACHERS' LOUNGE | DAS LEHRERZIMMER

GERMANY | 2023 | COLOR | DCP | 94’ | GERMAN, TURKISH, POLISH, ENGLISH

An idealistic teacher at a primary school causes a chain of events when she decides to investigate who is responsible for a series of minor thefts happening there. With its exemplary screenplay, the masterful stroke of being directed as a thriller, the great leading performance by Leonie Benesch (‘The White Ribbon’) and the clever answer given to crucial issues such as political correctness, cancel culture and the hidden traps of democratic institutions and societies, this excellent film becomes one of the great unexpected surprises of the year. Two awards at the Berlin Festival Panorama and Germany’s official submission for the upcoming Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. L.K.

DIRECTOR: İlker Çatak
SCREENWRITERS: Johannes Duncker, İlker Çatak
DoP: Judith Kaufmann
MUSIC: Marvin Miller
EDITOR: Gesa Jäger
PRINCIPAL CAST: Leonie Benesch, Leonard Stettnisch, Eva Löbau, Michael Klammer, Anne-Kathrin Gummich

İLKER ÇATAK
German director of Turkish origin, born in 1984. He returned as a boy to Istanbul where he attended secondary school. Afterwards he went back to Germany, where he studied Film and Television in Berlin and Hamburg. In 2005 he started working in short film and Advertising. Co-founder of 24LiesPerSecond production company.

FILMOGRAPHY
2023 The Teacher’s Lounge
2021 Stambul Garden
2019 I Was, I Am, I Will Be
2017 Once Upon a Time… Indianerland