Film: The Edukators

a.k.a. Die Fetten Jahre sind vorbei (Roughly translates as "The good years are over", a message left behind by the group calling themselves the Edukators).

But is it any good? Not bad - quite interesting, but certainly overlong, and it misses its opporunity to really tackle the interesting questions it raises head-on.

Jule is an oppressed waitress, deep in debt and with no security (she is evicted at the start of the film). She takes her revenge on the affluent diners that mistreat her in simple ways. But she doesn't realise that her boyfriend Jan and his flatmate Peter are striking back in a different way - entering rich people's houses and dramatacially rearranging their contents, so that they (like Jule) lose their sense of security.

The film spends a good deal of time establishing this, and rather unsubtly removing Jan from the picture long enough for Peter to fall for Jule and compormise his better judgment. Stipe Erceg as Peter is rather convincing here.

But the film loses its way a little when events spiral out of control and the three end up kidnapping one of their wealthy targets. Hardenburg was also a dissident in his youth before discovering the benefits of capitalism, so there's some potential for a real discussion of the two sides of the fence. Unfortunately, we never get more than a glimpse of his real character or motives, as he is more interested in provoking the developing love triangle.

While it is hard to predict how the film will end, so some interest is retained, that is in large part because we haven't seen enough of the caharacters, especially Hardenburg, to get a sense of how they should act. The slightly cryptic ending doesn't really satisfy, and the final scene included only in the German version doesn't help much. One question the film wants to ask is Do people change? It doesn't have the answers.

Performances are good and the home movie feel is generally appropriate, apart from a couple of shots where a steadier camera would have been nice. So it's quite interesting, but a bit of a missed opportunity to really hit some targets.