Safe Return Doubtful

Next into my own private film festival was a German film, their entry to to Oscars next year, called Das Lehrerzimmer, or, The Teacher’s Lounge.

It concerns a young ambitious teacher, Carla Novak, in her first job at a High School encountering a zero tolerance approach to discipline, authorised searches of pupils, and racial profiling. The acting is convincing, especially the 12 year olds of Novak’s class. Novak herself is played by Leonie Benesch, who I thought sounded familiar. She played Greta in Babylon Berlin.

If ever I needed a film to justify my retirement from teaching, this is it.

It’s well done generally, but has one particular high moment, the last ten seconds, which is after some of the credits have begun.

IMDb score 7.5 / 10 – My score 7 / 10

Then a Kosovan film called Zana, which has been out for a couple of years.

It’s a difficult film to fit into a genre. Its theme is the post traumatic stress suffered by those who were witness to the Balkan war, in particular the war crimes that occurred in rural Kosovo. Lume lost a child in one atrocity, and since has had troubled conceiving another, but is under great pressure from her husband and his mother. After various treatments the husband is convinced by the local healer to approach the Zana, the mysterious spirits of the forest who can heal those who contact them.

After watching Mrak (Darkling) earlier this year, this is the second excelllent Kosovan film about the war, and it’s after effects, I have seen.

The director, Antoneta Kastrati, is one to watch for sure.

IMDb score 7.3 / 10 – My score 8 / 10

And lastly for now, Dream Scenario, a recently released satire on the effects of unsolicited fame, with Nicholas Cage playing the main role.

It concerns a middle-aged professor, an ordinary enough family man with two teenage daughters, who starts appearing to the dreams of strangers. 90% of it was fine, cleverly written, well-performed, and alternately humorous and shocking. But I found the ending unsuitable, from what had gone before it deserved better.

I’m sympathetic, because I think endings to good dramas are often weak. If a film relies heavily on its plot, it’s almost a case of the better it is, the more difficult it is to give it a climax it merits.

IMDb score 7.1 / 10 – My score 7 / 10