The Teachers’ Lounge’: Director Ilker Çatak Reflects On The International Appeal Of His Intense Schoolroom Drama
25.02.2024 - 20:57
/ deadline.com
Of the five international films shortlisted for the Oscars, The Teachers’ Lounge has had the longest legs. Debuting at the 2023 Berlinale — and not even in competition — Ilker Çatak’s provocative thriller has been a fixture on the festival circuit ever since. Channeling the dark spirit of Michael Haneke, it stars Leonie Benesch as Carla Nowak, a teacher at a public school where a series of thefts have been taking place. Non-white students are immediately targeted, and Carla is disgusted by the blatant racism on display. But when she sets a trap to find the real culprit, things don’t go according to plan.
DEADLINE: The Teachers’ Lounge has had an incredible journey. It’s been a year now, so you’re probably tired of talking about it…
ILKER ÇATAK: Yeah, but it’s also been a pleasant journey and I’m glad to answer all the questions. When you start making a film, it’s always a bit of a gamble: Is it going to land with an audience or not? And this one did, which is, of course, the spot that you want to be in as a filmmaker. So yeah, that’s been crazy. And the beauty of it is that it’s all been so unexpected.
DEADLINE:How did it start? What was the original inspiration?
ÇATAK: I started writing this film together with Johannes Duncker, my co-writer. We went to school together, and we experienced a very similar incident to the one at the beginning of the film: we got frisked when we were students. But the difference was, we weren’t aware of our rights back then. We thought this could be a good kickoff for a story, and so we started writing it. We talked about it with some educators we knew, and they said, “Well, this happens on an everyday basis, but the difference is that nowadays you can’t just frisk the staff or the
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