One of the buzziest titles at Berlin this year, İlker Çatak’s gripping high school drama shows an idealistic young math teacher (the extraordinary Leonie Benesch) seeking to rectify what she reads as a miscarriage of justice, only to make matters unfathomably worse. New to her school, Ms Nowak is reluctantly drawn into the interrogation of two grade 6 class representatives after a series of thefts. They cast suspicion on a Turkish classmate, Ali, despite his proclamation of innocence even after a search turns up a surprisingly fat wallet. Convinced racism is at play, the teacher decides to set up a sting operation to uncover the true culprit. An ethics master class, the film vividly returns us to the everyday anguish of normal school life, when even seemingly the most straightforward problem can open up a minefield of mistrust and humiliation.
C.I.C.A.E. Award, Berlin 2023
Community Partner
Leonie Benesch, Leonard Stettnisch, Eva Lobau, Micheal Klammer Anne-Kathrin Gummich
Germany
2023
Showcase
In German with English subtitles
Bullying
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
Ingo Fliess
Screenwriter
Ilker Catak, Johannes Duncker
Cinematography
Judith Kaufmann
Editor
Gesa Jager
Original Music
Marvin Miller
Director
İlker Çatak
İlker Çatak was born in Berlin in 1984 and, the son of Turkish immigrants. He completed a master’s degree in directing at the Hamburg Media School. In 2017, Çatak made his first feature film, Es War Einmal Indianerland, the adaptation of the award-winning novel for young people by Nils Mohl. This was followed in 2019 by Es Gilt Das Gesprochene Wort. In 2021, the filmmaker adapted Finn-Ole Heinrich’s successful novel Rauberhande.
Filmography: Once Upon a Time… Indianerland (2017); I Was, I Am, I Will Be (2019); Stambul Garden (2021)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Cutting Through Rocks
Winner of Sundance's World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize, Cutting Through Rocks follows Sara Shahverdi — motorcyclist, midwife, and first-ever councilwoman elected in her Iranian village. A vérité triumph by Sara Khaki & Mohammadreza Eyni.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, and Special Jury Prize Winner, Sundance, 2025, this exposé shot by a Russian primary teacher shows how the Putin propaganda machine works to militarize children.
Spring After Spring
Three daughters strive to live up to the standards set by their mother Marie Mimi Ho, and keep Vancouver Chinatown's Spring Parade going through thick and thin, in this enormously affectionate local documentary by Jon Chiang.
The Chronology of Water
Kristen Stewart's fearless directorial debut is based on the best-selling memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch (Imogen Poots), a chronicle of her abusive childhood, traumatized adulthood, and escapes through swimming, drugs, sex, and ultimately writing.
Sound of Falling
A remote German farmhouse is the stage for the mundane and magical experiences of four girls who call the foreboding place home at various intervals over the course of a century. In turns delicate and devastating, this is cinema at its most experiential.
Image: © Fabian Gamper