Ilker Çatak: “The Teachers’ Room aims to tell what teachers endure on a daily basis”

This gripping German thriller, behind closed doors in a school where the situation degenerates following a theft, is nominated for an Oscar for foreign film. Meeting with its director.

How is born The Teachers’ Room ?

Ilker Çatak : I wanted to make a film centered on a character who, while thinking of doing good around her, keeps making bad choices. This idea that hell is often paved with good intentions

And very quickly, school emerged as the ideal setting for such a story?

Nothing was premeditated but the fruit of discussions with my co-writer Johannes Duncker who also happens to be my childhood friend… with whom I went to school! One day, he told me that his sister, a maths teacher, had been confronted with a theft in her establishment. It reminded us of what we had experienced as children in our school, where two students regularly stole their classmates' belongings. We all knew who they were but no one admitted it because we would all rather have things stolen than be called a snitch. All this fueled our inspiration to come up with this idea of a theft in the teachers' room as the trigger for a thriller in the world of school which immediately appealed to our producer. And we then started to develop this idea together with Johannes. In Germany, most films dealing with the world of school and teaching do so through the prism of comedy. I liked to approach it from another angle.

Your film builds its tension on the succession of collateral damage caused by this theft. Did you have from the start an idea of the story arc that would lead you to the conclusion of this story, this open ending where everyone can project what they want, or did you work scene by scene?

When we started writing, we had absolutely no idea how it was all going to end. So we basically had the experience that I hope the spectators will have. And that's what makes this job exciting. Each scene triggered another even though we had set two rules to which we stuck: never leave the establishment and distill a conflict, whatever it may be, into each scene.

THE TEACHERS’ ROOM: CHAOS IN THE HEART OF THE SCHOOL (CRITICAL)

The Teachers’ Room reveals an impressive actress in the role of Carla Nowak, this teacher who, by accusing a member of the administration of the theft of her money, sets things on fire despite herself: Leonie Benesch. Did you write this role for her?

I've loved Leonie for years and I think she was underestimated, that she never had to play a character capable of showing the breadth of those years: she was never offered a leading role. So we wrote with her photo pinned to the wall and the audition process only reinforced our intuition: Leonie was THE perfect actress for this role which has a lot to do with the ability of her interpreter to keep the mystery of who is this character without appearing opaque because we have decided not to tell his life outside the walls of this establishment. We don't know if Carla lives alone or in a relationship, if she has children or not, what friends or hobbies she has. Leonie immediately understood this and, through her suggestions on set, made the character progress in relation to the script.

Shooting this film also means having to deal with children and young adolescents who had no experience on set. How did you work with them?

This obviously plays out from the casting where I did not see any of these children in individual auditions but each time doing improvisation exercises in groups of four or five. Because it is the cohesion of the class, the dynamics of their exchanges that seemed essential to me. In addition to their quality, I also chose young people who I perceived were interested in the process of making a film. And, before filming, I brought them together to tell them that I wanted them to make me proud and that they, when they discovered the film, would be proud of themselves. I didn't treat them like children, I immediately made them responsible by telling them that it was not a game but a job with ethics to respect: go to bed early, don't make a mess on the set, learn your text, respect your playmates…

Is it more complicated to write for teenagers than for adults?

No, because we didn't try to make them “speak young” because we knew that would create a certain artificiality. They basically speak like adults and that corresponds to the story we developed.

How did you create on the image with your cinematographer Judith Kaufman the stifling climate of this Teachers room ?

Three basic elements immediately emerged: sequence shots, a camera that moved as much as possible and the 4:3 format to further lock our characters into this school. The process was then very intuitive but we relied on a few references, cold war on your mind.

Editing also plays an essential role in the tension that dominates your story until its conclusion. Was this step particularly laborious for you?

Honestly no because I'm a very impatient person. So I arrived quite quickly at a first version of around two hours. And I always work in the same way: I ask my editor to come up with an 80-minute version together, then we give the story some slack to finish around 90. And that's what happened on The Teachers’ Room.

How did you create on the image, with your cinematographer Judith Kaufman, the stifling climate of this Teachers room ?

Three basic elements immediately emerged: sequence shots, a camera that moves as much as possible and the 4:3 format to further lock our characters into this school. The process was then very intuitive but we relied on a few references, cold war on your mind.

Editing also plays an essential role in the tension that dominates your story until its conclusion. Was this step particularly laborious for you?

You have presented your film around the world. Have you felt any differences in cultural perception between German spectators and those from various other countries?

No and this proves that we were right with my co-screenwriter when we thought from the start our subject was totally universal and not only aimed at the German public. With one exception, perhaps, the American public where, due to the weapons on sale over the counter and the carnage that there may have been in certain establishments, I felt the public even more distressed by the story and how this crescendo of tension was about to end. But my greatest pride lies in the reaction of the teachers who come to see me after the screenings. They thank me for bringing to light what they face every day. They see it as support and they are right because being surrounded in our personal lives by teachers, it was a driving force and one of our objectives for this film.

How did you experience your nomination for the Foreign Film Oscar and the campaign that went with it?

In a very contrasting way. Because this recognition obviously brings joy… but also a crazy job! And by dint of increasing the number of trips back and forth to the United States, I have the feeling of having completely neglected my family… as well as my next project because I couldn't concentrate. I lost sleep. I'm suffering from insomnia for the first time in my life. Of course, all this paid off, but at what cost?

The Teachers' Room. By Ilker Çatak. With Leonie Benesch, Michael Klammer, Rafael Stachowiak… Duration: 1h39. Released March 6, 2024