Uneven ‘Edukators’ offers stimulating social critique
Hans Weingartner’s The Edukators opens with an affluent family returning from vacation to find their opulent furniture piled in the center of their living room and their priceless porcelain soldiers crammed into the toilet. Amidst the chaos, a note is found, “Your days of plenty are numbered — The Edukators.” In this manner, Weingartner introduces us to The Edukators, a group of political activists dedicated to fighting socioeconomic injustice in the world.
The film sets out to be a high-minded commentary on the problems with capitalistic German society but slowly veers off-course before finding its way again.
Edukators Jan (Good Bye Lenin!’s Daniel Bruehl) and Peter (Stipe Erceg) are known throughout Germany for breaking into mansions and rearranging the furniture, an act that they believe instills more fear in the wealthy inhabitants than actual theft. As Jan notes, “[Rich people] expect people to steal from them.”
While the less idealistic Peter is tempted to pocket a Rolex here and there, moralizing Jan maintains they are not after financial gain; they only want to teach the prosperous a lesson. The duo manages to spread their moralistic message to a number of well-to-do families without incident and without compromising their values — that is, until Peter’s girlfriend Jules (Der Untergang’s Julia Jentsch) enters the fray.
Jules and Jan discover they share an idealistic vision of what the world could be, and Jules reveals she is a victim of injustice as well. A past car accident has left her deeply in debt to a millionaire named Hardenberg (Good Bye Lenin!’s Burghart Klaussner) and her minimum-wage job does not provide her with enough money to both pay her debt and maintain her apartment. Once she learns Jan and Peter are the infamous Edukators, she convinces the infatuated Jan to teach her debtor a lesson. The scheme goes awry, and Jan and Jules are forced to take Hardenberg hostage and flee to preserve their anonymity.
The film’s low-budget look and camerawork seems fitting for the politically liberal tones. But while the handheld camerawork continues into the next half of the film, the fast-paced story does not. The story slows considerably as Jan, Jules and Peter escape to an isolated mountain cabin. During this mountain sequence, the audience sees the idealism of the youngsters fade and their selfish sides exposed. Their actions become motivated by worldly desires, and they fail to foster the respect they earned in the first half of the film. But, we begin to see them as real people and not just moralizing drones.
The bright spot in the lethargic second half is the group’s discussion of their liberal solutions for the economic problems of the world — a forum that is both intriguing and inspiring. The Edukators attempt to show Hardenberg the error of his ways, and these dialogue-heavy scenes showcase the idealism of Germany’s politically active youth. The debate between the conservative Hardenberg and the liberal Edukators is a rare exchange.
It is the one point in the movie where the audience sees the other side of the political debate. Bruehl’s portrayal of a radical activist and the passion with which he conveys his hopes for the future of Germany are utterly convincing.
While the slow pace and didactic discourse of the second half may be difficult for the average viewer to endure, the surprise ending comes close to compensating for it. The film picks up its pace again near the end, re-engaging the audience in the story. The daunting task of finding a satisfying conclusion to this film was masterfully accomplished by Weingartner. Singer Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” plays a prominent role in the final sequence and its mellow sound contrasts with the flurry of activity taking place on-screen, distancing the audience and thereby allowing the ending to have the greatest impact. Ultimately, although it meanders more than it should, The Edukators is a clever social satire.
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