Wednesday 22nd September 2010

The Edukators

Director: Hans Weingartner
Year: 2004
Stars: Daniel Bruhl, Julia Jentsch, Stipe Ersceg, Burghart Klaussner

This has been waiting to be watched for ages - maybe two years or so? I'm not sure why I was so uninspired to watch it - when it first came out it got good reviews, which is probably the reason I recorded it in the first place. But somehow the combination of not knowing very much about it, it being quite long and it being in German (although foreign languages aren't normally something that puts me off watching a film) had stopped me from watching it. But on this particular evening we'd decided we were going to watch something, but had almost no preference as to what. So we picked the thing at the bottom of the list - The Edukators.

The film follows three idealists, who, for various reasons, end up breaking into a businessman's house and kidnapping him.

I really shouldn't have waited this long to watch this film. Yes, it's long, but that doesn't matter. The film manages a perfect balance of telling a good story whilst having something to say. However, it also manages not to shove this down your throat. Although it's fairly clear whose side the filmmakers are on here, they don't shy away from recognising the other point of view, and even acknowledge that, yes, that side does have a point. On top of that, there's no annoying Hollywood cop-out ending where everything ends either "happy after ever", or leaves you wondering because the filmmakers can't be bothered to make a difficult decision. Here you get an ending much like real life. Like the film, it's complex, but honest.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

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About Me

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I live in Bristol with my husband Dan (who I married in July 2007), my son Joe (born 2012) and daughter Jess (born 2015). I work at UWE (the University of the West of England) in Bristol as a Research and Open Access Librarian. I'm orginally from Exeter, so moving back to Bristol is a bit like coming home - especially as I studied for my undergraduate degree here (also at UWE). I love travelling and movies, although I get to do a lot less of both since the birth of our children. Although we have still managed to fit in holidays to the Isles of Scilly, Chamonix and a summer in California since Joe was born.