But what exactly does that mean?
Sometimes I feel like I watch films, and theyre so safe.
The same goes for Paola Sorrentino and Justine Triets films.
Ilker Çatak & Leonie Benesch in ‘The Teachers’ Lounge’Baz Bamigboye/Alamode/Sony Pictures Classics
I agree with that, too.
Catak sees school as a miniature of society.
Teachers ask the pupils to show them their wallets.
Leonie Benesch in ‘The Teachers’ Lounge’ Photo-Hanna Lenz/Alamode.
We discovered that many German schools have problems, obviously, but they also have policies of zero tolerance.
Education is a very sensitive topic in Germany, says Catak.
He laughs as he recounts being back in class.
I sat there and I had the same feeling that I had when I was a student.
I wanted to sleep, and I was like, Why is school starting at eight in the morning?
School is daycare, says Catak.
He remembers his parents telling him never to question what a teacher said.
Nowadays, its the opposite.
Thats also because communication has gotten quicker.
In the film, a pupil of Turkish descent is singled out as a suspect in the theft.
So we wrote the scene, and we showed it to working teachers, he adds.
He sighs as he recalls being singled out as the Turkish kid growing up in Germany.
You do get racially profiled.
As he dug deeper into life at school, Catak realized that the film would be about childrens rights.
This is also about how you stand up to a hierarchy that puts you under pressure, he says.
There are no victims inThe Teachers Lounge, he adds.
Everybody has to fight and no one backs down.
That was the goal of the film.
Its like a nuclear warhead exploding.
For me as a director, that is a very thankful thing.
If you have conflict and you have friction in your scenes, thats drama.
You dont have to do anything as a director because the actors know what to do.
They have a clear goal.
Fitting in
Catak was born in Berlin to Turkish parents.
For the most part, he was the only brown kid in his class.
He realized much later in life that he would start compensating with certain behaviours to fit in.
I was raised in Richmond, just on the outskirts of London.
There was one other Black kid in my school.
When Catak was 12 his family moved to Istanbul, returning to Germany when he was 18.
His father worked for the postal service and his mother worked in a bank.
Were basically working class people.
My grandparents, who were fabric workers, came to Germany in the early 1970s.
They were illiterates and they learned to write and read just in Germany, Catak tells me.
Art was not a big thing in the family.
Im an only child and for them the most important thing was to see me studying, he recalls.
After high school, he studied economics at university in Berlin.
I hated it, and my escape was the movie theater.
I went to the movies all the time.
And the guy said, What do you like doing?
I said, I like going to the movies.
And he said, I should should make some.
It was as easy as that, says Catak, his eyes brightening at the memory.
By this time his friend Duncker was shooting short films, with Catak performing in them.
We were young and we didnt know what we were doing, says Catak.
But he knew that he would have to tell his parents.
Guys, Im quitting my studies to become a PA, he told them.
And my parents said, What is a PA?
What are you doing there?
Well, I was basically Im just blocking streets and making coffee for my bosses and whatnot.
His parents accused him of throwing it all away.
It was the first really big fight hed had with his parents.
I was living in their house, but not for long.
I moved out and lived on the couches of friends.
My father said, Okay then, just piss off and never come back.
Catak applied to films schools and made more short films.
He was broke and didnt know what he was doing with his life.
He started selling ice-cream at a parlour in Kreuzberg, using his earnings to finance his short films.
It started when Catak returned to the family home for his mothers birthday.
Catak was correct its a country but he was heartbroken that his father hid the fact he didnt know.
Catak and Duncker ended up making a twenty minute film calledWhen Namibia was a City.
His father is the films lead.
The director sent me links to several of his shorts and earlier features over the course of our discussions.
I watchedWhen Namibiawas a Cityover and over.
Its not the remotest bit mean about Cataks father.
The camera seems to love him.
Knowing the background, I found watching the short tremendously moving.
The sense that art can help reconcile is so important in our fractured society.
He takes a deep breath to keep the emotion at bay.
That was a turning point where he started also believing in me, says Catak.
He was the man who worked his life as a postman.
Things after that evolved, and I kept writing and making short films.
I wondered about his parents now.
Are they still with us?
And they are so proud, he says with a beaming smile.
Germany has submittedThe Teachers Loungeas its entry in the Academys Best International Feature Film category.
Cataks father has been calling relatives in Anatolia to tell them about the films success.
Whats moving to me is the fact that they are moved and happy, says Catak.
I prefer posing a question instead of a message, says Catak.
Its a space where I can put together the pieces myself; where I can interpret something.
This prompts Catak to discussThe Anatomy of a Fall, another film that explores similar thematic questions.
If truth is something that you could bend, then it becomes a matter of belief.
And we know how dangerous so-called alternative truth has become.
Best of a generation
Actors mine a script and extract the most telling material.
Thats what Leonie Benesch does as Carla.
Catak hails her as the best of her generation.
Shes a young Isabelle Huppert, he says.
Shes got something, like a magician.
And I actually dont want to know how the magician does this magic.
But just as integral toThe Teachers Loungeare the kids that populate its classrooms.
They were selected after exhaustive casting sessions, many of which Catak led.
Those who made the final mix would have interviews with him.
I would talk to them and say, Okay, here are three things.
Second, I want you to have a work ethic.
I want you to go to sleep early.
I want you to know your lines.
I want you to behave.
And third, there are no extras.
You arent an extra.
We are one entity.
Cataks right to favor provocation in art.
Its fun when a movie makes you mad.
