The Edukators
In German with English subtitles
Starring Daniel Bruhl, Julia Jentsch, Stipe Erceg, Burghart Klaussner
Screenplay by Katharina Held, Hans Weingartner
Directed by Hans Weingartner
REVIEW BY SIBYLLE KACZOREK
Set in today's Berlin, this deeply anti-capitalist film is about young people who are critical of the way their society and the world works. The majority of this exposure occurs through dialogues among three central characters â Jan (Daniel Brhl), Peter (Stipe Erceg) and Jule (Julia Jentsch). Later, these "educationals" include a kidnapped representative of the bourgeoisie.
It is these conversations that bring out the depth of the political understanding and dissent that Jan, Peter and Jule have gained. The arguments are thorough and convincing. The gap between rich and poor and the logic and dynamic behind this situation are explored. The decisions leading to injustice and exploitation are stripped of their covers.
Individual decisions â such as when Jule has to pay off 100,000 euros for a car accident with a Mercedes â and decisions affecting groups of people and countries are analysed as the expressions of the interests of the property owning classes.
The passivity and lack of critical thought among the masses of the population is explained through the numbing role the corporate media plays, in particular television with an average of four hours viewing per European citizen.
Throughout the film's two hours, the crimes of capitalist society are exposed. There is a sweatshop scene in which customers are confronted with the facts of child labour and slave-like working conditions and wages in the Asian countries where highly valued sports shoes are produced.
The Jan, Peter and Jule are convinced that there is nothing natural, moral or inevitable about this situation. Early in the film, Jan states that the first step to changing it is to recognise injustice, the second step is to act.
But still enslaved to the liberal conception that orients to the ruling class rather than the working masses as the agency of social change, Peter and Jan seek to scare the wealthy elite into reforming its ways. They break into a rich family's home, rearrange the furniture, dump a collection of porcelain figures in the toilet and plant a note reading "Your days of plenty are over". Later, they kidnap a former left radical, now turned wealthy businessman and owner of the Mercedes Jule had her car accident with.
Despite the political ineffectiveness of their course of action, Jan, Peter and Jule maintain the high moral ground of anti-capitalist criticism.
From Green Left Weekly, May 25, 2005.
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