The Teachers' Lounge: A Nuanced, Rich Tapestry Of Office Politics
A rich tapestry of school politics, cross-cultural conflicts, surveillance, and how mistrust can lead to full-blown mass paranoia and mass hysteria unfolds within the narrative.
Some points were deducted for the score, as it was slightly heavy-handed in manipulating the audience to feel a deeper sense of dread than they might otherwise. However, through Leonie Benesch’s incredible performance alone, portraying a Woman On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown, we gain profound insights.
The thin veneer of control that Carla, Leonie’s character, initially exhibits quickly begins to erode. Quick breaths, fleeting glances, and fluttering eyelids all contribute to an incredibly realistic and authentic portrayal. Nonetheless, a score filled with discordant tones, harsh, biting strings, and a droning, ominous cello occasionally veers into overkill.
There is a larger problem at play here. While the individuals involved squabble over 1,000 pencils, €80, and other accouterments, billions of dollars in wages are stolen every day by conglomerates, living expenses continue to rise at an alarming rate, and rights that our ancestors fought and died for are being rolled back daily.
The issues presented in this film are significant and warrant attention and respect. However, it’s hard not to ponder how the uber-wealthy must perceive our petty squabbles, reveling in our propensity to turn on each other, when the lack of resources allocated to public institutions lies at the heart of many of the film’s depicted issues.
