The Vaguest Ideas

Review: The Edukators -- The Idealist's Manifesto

Two Berlin slackers Jann and Peter are secretly "the Edukators" an agitprop duo who, using their knowledge of alarm systems, break into mansion of the wealthy not to steal, but to disconcert by rearranging furniture and belongings into artful and bizarre displays, and leaving behind obtuse warnings "Your days of plenty are numbered." When Jann brings Peter's girlfriend Jule along things start to go wrong, a third side to a romantic triangle clicks into place, and the prankster houseraid turns inadvertently into a kidnapping.

The rest of the film plays out the tensions within the love triangle, and between the amateur political kidnappers, and the rich businessman who has had his own radical youth. The businessman's motives are kept unclear, is his reminiscing over his glory days sympathetic or is he just playing a game of cat and mouse with his captors?

It is pleasurably hard to classify this film, which is ultimately a wistful reflection on youthful idealism vs adult realism, with some thriller elements in the mix. If I found the twist at the end which gives hope that idealism may live on, erm, unrealistic, or at least, erm, unsustainable, well, that's just me being an old cynic. Exactly.

Labels: Reviews

posted by Brian R Tarnoff @ 7:22 pm