Podtalk, Review: Director Ilker Çatak of ‘The Teachers’ Lounge’

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CHICAGO – Public education is in the fight of its life. As curriculums are determined more through the state, parents and politics, the local authority of a child’s educator is being consistently diminished. This subject is the centerpiece of “The Teacher’s Lounge,” co-written and directed by German/Turkish filmmaker Ilker Çatak.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Carla (Leonie Benesch) is a dedicated, idealistic young teacher in her first job at a German middle school. Her relaxed rapport with her seventh-grade students is put under stress when a series of thefts occur at the school, and a staff investigation leads to accusations and mistrust among outraged parents, opinionated colleagues, and angry students. Caught in the middle of these complex dynamics, Carla tries to mediate … but the more she tries to do everything right, the more desperate her position becomes. The film has a wide release on January 19th, 2024.

’The Teachers’ Lounge,’ Co-Written/Directed by Ilker Çatak (inset)
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Classics

“The Teachers’ Lounge” feels like a combination of “Lord of the Flies” and “To Sir with Love” as Beneasch portrays Carla with a sense of idealism and righteousness, as she loves the profession she has chosen. Because of her theories on the thefts, and the means to which she concludes these theories, her credibility lapses. Within the film is a stark realization that teachers are no longer authority figures, as parents push back and digital media invades the space, and the film becomes a harrowing story of lost opportunities and the petty trivialities in maintaining social order in school.

The film asserts that the cost is a lesser society, ill prepared citizens and a sense of paranoia that cannot be reversed. Director Çatak has created an in-the-now debate on the meaning of education and discipline in an era where teachers can’t teach and no voice can be relied on for truth.

İlker Çatak was born in Berlin and completed high school in Istanbul. He studied film directing in Berlin and Hamburg, graduating in 2014 at Hamburg Media School. His grad film “Sadakat” received many international awards before winning the 2015 Student Academy Award. İlker’s first feature film, “Once Upon a Time in Indianerland” debuted in 2017, and his second feature “I Was, I Am, I Will Be” (2019) received the Bronze Lola at the German Film Awards. “The Teachers’ Lounge” is his fourth feature film.

In an Podtalk interview from the Chicago International Film Festival in October, with Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com, Director Ilker Çatak talks about the themes of “The Teachers’ Lounge” …

By PATRICK McDONALD Editor and Film Critic/Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com