Film Screening
German Movie Nights: The Teachers’ Lounge

01/31/2025
7:00pm
Goethe-Institut New York
30 Irving PlaceNew York, NY 10003
USA
Details
Language: German with English subtitlesPrice: Free admission
+1 212 4398700
gfo-newyork@goethe.de Registration is required for this event
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A series of thefts puts the relationships of a middle school teacher with her students and colleagues to the test.
German Movie Nights are back! This month, the German Film Office is pleased to host a screening of İlker Çatak’s award-winning feature film The Teachers’ Lounge, followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker, moderated by film critic Tomris Laffly. Please register to attend.
Carla Nowak is a dedicated, idealistic young teacher in her first job at a German middle school. Her relationships with her students and colleagues are put to the test when a series of thefts leads to one of her students, Ali, being accused without evidence. When Nowak tries to investigate, the situation escalates, leading to increased tensions between parents, fellow teachers, and students.
“Taking on the uneasy complexity of a progressive modern society, and the friction produced when pluralism and an insistence on order and obedience collide, is a bold move, and ‘The Teachers’ Lounge’ pulls it off with a sense of tension that makes the whole thing play like a thriller.” (New York Times)
Among its many accolades, The Teachers’ Lounge was nominated for an Academy Award for Best International Feature Film and won Outstanding Feature Film at the 2023 German Film Awards.
Das Lehrerzimmer
Dir. İlker Çatak
Germany, 2023
94 minutes
With Leonie Benesch, Leonard Stettnisch, Eva Löbau, Michael Klammer
İlker Çatak is a director and screenwriter based in Berlin. His films deal with themes of identity, power structures, and social conflicts. His graduation short Sadakat (2014) received multiple international awards including the Student Academy Award in Gold. His second feature I Was, I Am, I Will Be (2019) received the German Film Award in Bronze. The Teachers' Lounge (2023) is his fourth feature film and premiered in the Panorama section of the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival. Çatak is currently a Villa Aurora Fellow of Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.
Tomris Laffly is a film critic and entertainment journalist based in New York, with bylines across Variety, RogerEbert.com, W Magazine, Vanity Fair, Elle, TIME, Harper’s Bazaar, TheWrap and others. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC), Tomris covers various prominent film festivals around the world, and frequently moderates awards season panels and opening-weekend Q&As. Previously, she has served as part of the Gotham Awards nominating committees, the narrative competition jury at SXSW in 2023, and the documentary jury at Hamptons International Film Festival in 2024. Prior to launching her film journalism career, Tomris spent a decade in marketing/advertising production after earning her MBA. She lives in Harlem.