Ilker Çatak (‘The Teachers’ Lounge’ director) on why school is the perfect setting to take on ‘debate culture’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

Denton Davidson
·3 min read

“None of us expected this,” says director İlker Çatak, whose film “The Teachers’ Lounge” has been selected as Germany’s entry for Best International Feature at the 96th Academy Awards. “We started out making this as a really small film and then all of the sudden you’re representing a whole country. It’s great, but at the same time it’s a great responsibility.”

We talked with Çatak as part of Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&A event with 2023/2024 awards contenders. Watch our exclusive video interview above.

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In “The Teachers’ Lounge,” when one of her students is suspected of theft, teacher Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch) decides to get to the bottom of the matter. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her.

“I was no easy student,” Çatak jokes while discussing the script he wrote with Johannes Duncker. “I was a good student, though. I always had good grades, but I was always up for a discussion or even a fight with the teacher. I was a bit of a troublemaker. After school, when you get a little older and you get a little milder, your view on the world and on your teachers changes. Johannes and I just thought, ‘Why aren’t there any cool teacher films around? Why can’t we make a film about a good teacher who just wants the best for her students, but still does the wrong thing?'”

The director hopes to get viewers thinking about how saying one wrong thing can get even the most idealistic, well-meaning person in trouble. “It reflects our times,” he says. “There were so many topics that bugged us, like the whole debate culture. Everybody on social media is at war with each other. It’s not about listening to each other. It’s about being right and being righteous. There’s a lot we implement in what we see in our culture. School is a great place to do that because school is a miniature society. That’s how this came along.”

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