The Teacher’s Lounge

Leonie Benesch stars as a teacher pushed to their breaking point in İlker Çatak’s slow-burn drama The Teacher’s Lounge. Co-written alongside Johannes Duncker, the foundation for the events to come is laid early on when one of her students is accused of stealing money. This is one of many recent thefts that has occurred on school premises, and when the child is found to be innocent, the teacher decides to investigate for herself. Covertly filming the teachers’ lounge using her laptop, she catches another member of staff taking money from her coat. When confronting the culprit, the pair lock horns, and the situation quickly spirals out of control.

What follows is a biting examination of bureaucracy, mob mentality and misinformation, as rumours about the incident begin to circulate around the parents, staff and other students. Benesch is flawless in the leading role as Carla Nowak. Although she puts on a brave face at work to keep up appearances for the children and their parents, there’s a raw vulnerability just beneath her professional smile. One of the most effective scenes, for example, sees Carla rush into the bathroom to have an anxiety attack in secret. Moreover, she genuinely cares about her students and wants to do right by them. It’s this compassion that underscores the protagonist’s humanity and enables audiences to become fully immersed in her plight when events begin to unravel. And they unravel fast.

Çatak gradually winds the tension as the situation increasingly gets out of hand. There’s an inescapable feeling that something is going to go horribly wrong, and when it inevitably does towards the end of the second act, the moment comes as an extraordinarily powerful gut punch that will leave viewers reeling. Given how masterfully Çatak and Duncker have built the film up to this point, it comes as a disappointment that they’re not quite able to stick the landing in the third act.

While Benesch continues to deliver an outstanding performance, the filmmakers seem unsure how to handle the fallout of the climax. With no real conclusion or payoff given to any of the major plot points raised throughout the runtime, the final act feels incomplete. Even if the ending leaves something to be desired, The Teachers’ Lounge is nevertheless a gripping poignant drama fronted by a staggeringly good performance from Benesch.

Andrew Murray

The Teacher’s Lounge is released in select cinemas on 12^th April 2024.

Watch the trailer for The Teacher’s Lounge here: