The Teachers' Lounge (Subtitled) (12)

A petty school theft leads to a community meltdown in this terrific Oscar-nominated German drama.

Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch) is new to the school, her commitment and optimism still unblunted. When the suspicion for a spate of thefts falls on a particular boy, based on little more than his skin colour, she acts to exonerate him, capturing, through dubious means, evidence that seems to implicate a fellow member of staff. But the accused teacher, single mother of Oskar (Leo Stettnisch), another child in Carla’s class, protests her innocence.

Tensions build among the children, then spill into their parents’ WhatsApp groups. Cliques within the staff become more pronounced, and charged. A confrontation between Oskar and Ms Nowak during a PE lesson contains a breach of the unspoken pupil-teacher contract so startling in the heat of the moment, it winds you with shock.

Taking on the uneasy complexity of a progressive modern society, and the friction produced when inclusivity and an insistence on order and obedience collide, is a bold move, and The Teachers’ Lounge pulls it off with a sense of tension that makes the whole thing play like a thriller.