The Edukators (2004)

"Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei" or "The Edukators" is a German 2-hour film from over 10 years ago written and directed by Hans Weingartner. The core cast here includes Daniel Brühl and Julia Jentsch (2 of Germany's biggest stars back then, Brühl still today) plus Stipe Erceg and Burghart Klaussner, who won a German Film Award for his supporting performance here. The movie itself also finished in second place behind " Alles auf Zucker!". It is somewhat a mix of "Funny Games" and "The Dreamers", so basically a kidnapping film that is not a thriller though and not about who lives and who dies, but about the protagonists' approach to life and society. And as much as this may apply to the young trio, for me, it was all about Klaussner's character here, a man at the age of 50 who sees himself in the idea of his captors before life took him into a completely different connection, one that went basically against everything that he believed in as a young man, the ideals of his youth.Another crucial aspect is the harmony in this film. Yes there are struggles when Erceg realizes the other two are in love, but at the end he can not only accept it because love is all that matters, but it also won't severely damage his friendship, especially to Brühl's character. And still, even if this film can not be called a thriller at any point, it is still a fairly tense watch. The scenes during which they break into the houses are pretty thrilling to watch and the moment we see Klaußner's character appear and catch them in the act is one of the best of the entire film. Also the scenes in the countryside with the characters' interactions were captivating to watch.Finally, you cannot really do anything wrong with the inclusion of "Hallelujah", even if the version used in here does not come from the master himself, Leonard Cohen. This was a truly nice way to end the film. I must say as strong as the direction here is, the heart and soul of the film is (except Klaussner's performance) the script. The comments about life happening and slowly turning you into somebody else in order to be able to care for a family for example was something that really stays in the mind. The film runs a couple minutes longer than 2 hours, so pretty long, but I must say it never dragged at all and I personally always like it when the cast of a film is very small, very essential and all the main characters are elaborated on properly. The only negative note I can think of is that the only one from the trio who still gives convincing performances in my opinion is Klaussner, which is really sad as the 3 young actors certainly looked very promising here. Brühl occasionally has a pretty solid performance like "Rush", but as a whole he basically always plays the same character. Back to this film here, though, I highly recommend watching it. Interesting political messages and a wonderful character study. Don't miss out.

Director Hans Weingartner has stated that this film came about partly to reflect on his own struggle to find a political identity as a young adult in Germany. This confusion is evident from the beginning, as all three of the young adults seem to have different motives for becoming 'Edukators'. In one scene early on, Jan finds a watch that Peter has stolen and throws it out the window of the van, to which Peter responds "you just threw away 5,000 euros", implying that he intended to capitalise on his 'find'. Jule also seems to have a rather selfish approach to being an 'Edukator', as she purely wants to cancel a debt so that maybe she could start a lucrative career herself. Both of the guys are willing to ignore the nature of her motives and help her (they even compare her situation to the debt of Third World nations) for their own selfish desires (i.e. her).My problem with the film was that the ending was too facile. The set-up of the characters is somewhat idealistic, so the end message "some people never change" carries little of the gravitas it ought to (as does the clumsy, unauthorised cut of Jeff Buckley's 'Hallelujah' – was it *really* necessary?).

One of the 2 films i manage to catch during the German film fest w my friend is The Edukators, incidentally both films has this actor Daniel Bruhl in it. The Edukators started off w 3 young adults who are very involved in protesting for their rights and opposing capitalism in their country, trying their own ways to influence the country into listening to their voices. Other than protesting on the streets, the 2 guys have another way of showing their capability in influencing the society. By breaking into rich houses and re-arranging the furnitures without taking anything and leaving a note saying 'The Days of Plenty Are Over'. One of the couple are lovers to start off with and slowly the plot reveals that the other guy acted by Daniel likes the girl too and started to involve her into their nite activities which ended in a very awkward manner: The owner came back! During this part of the film, i was getting a little bit irritated already due to the girl's clumsiness and inability to heed instructions. Then i slowly realise that actually this is the point the plot starts to become really really interesting and will end w a simply great twist. Dun really wanna reveal too much of the ending but highly recommended to watch this film for reasons like the great Germany hillside sceneries (beautiful!), cute actors (ok, towards the end of the film, i switched from liking Daniel to really liking Stipe Erceg (the chiselled-chin guy)), funny funny one-liners, and of course a fantastic ending. Overall a great German film not to be missed!

There are many films whose basic plot sees its characters getting into ever deeper trouble as they attempt to cover up a minor crime gone wrong. But 'The Edukators' puts this story into a political context, and an ingenious one at that, painting a backdrop of contemporary student activism that is original and convincing in spite of the relative absence of political idealism in our age. If the decision to contrast this with the 1960s is more obvious, that's only because it's natural. Moreover, there's a skillful depiction of a complex four-way dynamic among the leading characters, and it's a real strength of the movie that, while it gains some tension from aspects of its story that might seem to be generic thriller material, the plot is resolved around the film's own specific mixture of the personal and political. In fact, although the film has a clear pitch, it's more interesting and subtle than the sell might suggest; and one of a number of strong German movies from the last few years.