Rad Edukation
CAUTION: THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SOME MINOR PLOT SPOILERS AND CASUAL USE OF NATIONAL STEREOTYPING FOR INTENDED COMIC/METAPHORIC EFFECT.
Jan and Peter break into peoples' houses, but they don't steal anything. Instead, they rearrange your personal effects, drop your sofa into the swimming pool and deface the walls with propaganda. They're young, they're impetuous, they're The Edukators and they'd like you to know that you have too much money and your days of plenty are numbered.
As we join the protagonists it's a case of 'so far, so good', their activities are relatively small-scale, meticulously planned, tightly-controlled social experiments, getting enough media attention to spread their word without attracting too much heat from the cops. But of course, this being a drama there must be conflict, and so trouble rears her pretty head in the lissom shape of debt-ridden waitress Jule (Julia Jentsch). When she joins the team, things get personal, both in terms of an uneasy love triangle and a spontaneous reprisal against a local businessman which goes terribly wrong, and thus forces all three to re-examine their personal and global politics.
When things start to get messy it would have been easy for director Hans Weingartner to take the Tarantino route into stylish, bloody, nihilistic mayhem, but luckily he's much better than that, so in place of dogma there is dialogue and the threat of violence gives way to the possibility of change through challenging values and clearer thinking. The result is, like Lukas Moodysson's Together (2000), a mature and thoughtful film about young and unstable people, through which the director effects a 'quiet revolution' on the viewer's consciousness. As the film broadens out into a warm inclusiveness and our defence systems are disabled, the film stealthily reaches its' final conclusion: the best ideas always survive, and it's never too late to rediscover your purpose.
A subversive film, then, but not in the manner you'd expect. A film that fucks with your mind, but in a good way, bringing you to the celebral climax with a steady, calming yet quietly insistent touch. A film of the year, if not the film of the year: it's too early to dish out the gongs yet, but Weingartner has placed his towels on the sunbed and isn't going to concede now without a struggle.
The Edukators is available to buy or rent now from UGC Films (Amazon link)
CAUTION: THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SOME MINOR PLOT SPOILERS AND CASUAL USE OF NATIONAL STEREOTYPING FOR INTENDED COMIC/METAPHORIC EFFECT.
Jan and Peter break into peoples' houses, but they don't steal anything. Instead, they rearrange your personal effects, drop your sofa into the swimming pool and deface the walls with propaganda. They're young, they're impetuous, they're The Edukators and they'd like you to know that you have too much money and your days of plenty are numbered.
As we join the protagonists it's a case of 'so far, so good', their activities are relatively small-scale, meticulously planned, tightly-controlled social experiments, getting enough media attention to spread their word without attracting too much heat from the cops. But of course, this being a drama there must be conflict, and so trouble rears her pretty head in the lissom shape of debt-ridden waitress Jule (Julia Jentsch). When she joins the team, things get personal, both in terms of an uneasy love triangle and a spontaneous reprisal against a local businessman which goes terribly wrong, and thus forces all three to re-examine their personal and global politics.
When things start to get messy it would have been easy for director Hans Weingartner to take the Tarantino route into stylish, bloody, nihilistic mayhem, but luckily he's much better than that, so in place of dogma there is dialogue and the threat of violence gives way to the possibility of change through challenging values and clearer thinking. The result is, like Lukas Moodysson's Together (2000), a mature and thoughtful film about young and unstable people, through which the director effects a 'quiet revolution' on the viewer's consciousness. As the film broadens out into a warm inclusiveness and our defence systems are disabled, the film stealthily reaches its' final conclusion: the best ideas always survive, and it's never too late to rediscover your purpose.
A subversive film, then, but not in the manner you'd expect. A film that fucks with your mind, but in a good way, bringing you to the celebral climax with a steady, calming yet quietly insistent touch. A film of the year, if not the film of the year: it's too early to dish out the gongs yet, but Weingartner has placed his towels on the sunbed and isn't going to concede now without a struggle.
The Edukators is available to buy or rent now from UGC Films (Amazon link)
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