Review of The Edukators (2004) by John B — 03 Jul 2007

I just recently saw this 2004 movie from the fatherland. If the point that all personal is political needed proof, here it is. This story of a revolutionary youthgang/love triangle is nothing if not romantic. If you have ever been to the Berlin district of Kreuzberg, you will probably agree that the movie captures the bohemian/activist atmosphere there quite nicely. I have had many conversations with people like Jan, who can effortlessly incorporate quotes by Marx, Lenin, and Mao into any dinner conversation, and have a waterproof answer to any ideological challenge.

But you can't help but like the three main characters, and even the greedy businessman they end up kidnapping--more out of desperation than by plan--turns out to be an old revoluzzer, who is sympathetic to their ideals. But that is precisely the problem: what kind of fascism are we living in when even the class enemy understands you, and where consumer culture has thoroughly co-opted the symbols of resistance? No wonder our three friends are so confused.

The Edukators hence poses the question of responsibility and identity that young people face who grow up in such a society. In the end, all three of them learn the most about character and responsibility not by engaging in high politics, but when they have to come to grips with their personal life and balance friendship with romantic love.

The acting here is superb. Daniel Bruehl is great, and if you have seen him in Goodbye, Lenin!, you can catch a nice irony: whereas in that movie, Bruehl plays a disaffeced East German who is fed up with Communist slogans, in The Edukators he portrays a disaffeced post-reunification German youth who is spouting Communist slogans. He is disaffeced either way, and convincingly so. Julia Jentsch, who was also fantastic as Sophie Scholl, gives another show of subdued determination and shy romanticism. Both come across as basically decent, putting on a show that barely masks their insecurity.