THE EDUKATORS
Austria, 2004, 126 minutes, Colour.
Daniel Bruhl, Julia Jentsch, Stipe Erceg, Burghart Klaussner.
Directed by Hans Weingartner.
It is helpful to know that the Austrian director is about thirty, lived for a time in a commune, and was imbued with a great desire for social justice and reform.
His principal characters are young twenty somethings who want to find something to believe in. They are fed up with the globalised consumerist, have – have not, society. Protest seems to achieve nothing, except the experience of some police brutality. What about some symbolic actions, like breaking into mansions, not stealing anything but rearranging the furniture and other trappings and leaving a note (signed by The Edukators) telling the residents that they have too much money?
Obviously, this can be a risk and they fall victim to the chances they took. However, by abducting a very wealthy man and taking him to beautiful mountain countryside, they have the opportunity to assess what they believe in, what they should do (especially with some tangled relationships). They hear how it was in 1968, the rebellious protests, the optimistic dropouts and commune dwellers, the idealism that thought for some moments that the world could be changed.
This makes the second part of the film more interesting in its ideas and interactions with a veteran of 1968 and its weighing up the pros and cons of that historic period.
Oldies may shake their heads at the 'lack of realism' in this idealism or sit comfortably back in their armchairs and applaud it.
1.The personal history of the director, living like his central characters, wanting to change the world, wanting to live in community, wanting to rebel, wanting to find a cause to believe in, his criticism of capitalism, the world’s rich?
2.The Berlin settings, the apartments, the streets and the vehicles? The rich mansions? The contrast with the mountains, their beauty, the house, the scenes of the lake and the town? The scenes in the town? The musical score, the range of songs both American and European?
3.The title, the word used for parents and all those responsibility for education? The ironic use of the title by the group, their criticism of the rich having too much money, their message as they raided the houses?
4.The opening of the film, the family returning home, the images on the security camera? The rich family, the discovery that all their goods had been placed in piles, machines in the refrigerator…? Nothing stolen but the raid as a kind of joke which was a warning?
5.The portrait of the group: Peter, laid-back, going to Barcelona, his long friendship with Jan? His relationship with Jule? The partnership with Jan and the raiding of the houses? His going on holidays, his return and things changing?
6.Jan, seeing him on the bus, giving his ticket to the alcoholic man being harassed by the group? His literal strong-arm tactics? His friendship with Peter, his accommodation? The raids and the message? The friendship with Jule? Peter’s absence, his helping her with the painting and the wallpapering, getting to know each other, the attraction, cooking for her? Her going with him?
7.Jule, her age and experience, wanting something to believe in? Her participation in the demonstrations? Her work in the restaurant, the critical customers and their rudeness? Her smoking, her eventually being fired? The information about her debt, the crash into the man with the Mercedes, the 100,000 euros debt, her gradually paying it off? The landlord and her having to move? Getting to know Jan?
8.The background of demonstrations, social concern, changing the world? Individuals needing groups to support them in their rebellion? Peaceful and legal protests? The literal strong-arm tactics of the police?
9.Jan explaining the edukators to Jule? Their being in the van, looking at the screen? Her finding the house of the man to whom she was in debt? Her urgent persuading Jan to go in? Into the house, seeing his wealth? Throwing the sofa into the pool? Their enjoying themselves, in the pool? Jule setting off the alarm in the garden, their escaping in time? Her realising that she had left the mobile phone, the need to return?
10.The return, Hardenberg and his coming home, the phone call, seeing the light on? Confronting Jule? Jan hitting him, their tying him up? The dilemma? Phoning Peter, his coming, the decision to abduct Hardenberg? The mixed feelings?
11.The drive, the beauty of the mountains, the cliffs, the lake? The house? The week spent there, the cooking, the sleeping arrangements, the shopping? Discussing what to do with Hardenberg? Getting to know him?
12.Hardenberg, his personality, his explanation of 1968, his living in a commune of six, rebellion? Their admiration for his past, the puzzle about his change? His explanation of the change, marriage, children, education and security, money? His huge salary? His treatment of Jule – through his lawyer? His gradual explanations, his own sense of freedom, eating the food, going out to the mountains? Their taking him to make calls to his maid not to come to the house, to reassure his wife? His feeling at home with the group? The change and his yearning for the past?
13.The relationship between Jule and Jan? Hardenberg and his mentioning it to Peter, Peter’s anger, the fight with Jan, the confrontation with Jule? But his living and let living? Hardenberg and his comment on free love and the threesome – and it being alien to their behaviour?
14.The decision to return, the drive back, each driving in turn, at home, Hardenberg and his giving the document freeing Jule, his waving as he went into the house?
15.The three, together – Hardenberg at home, the police raid, his sitting in the car? The irony of their going to the old apartment – and the note that people never change?
16.The aims of the director, a young man, wanting to show the angers, a type of joking and poetic resistance, the strength of the group, the critique of affluent society, the rich generation, people being prisoners of their possessions?
