The Edukators (2004)

Three activists cobble together a kidnapping plot after they encounter a businessman in his home.

Director:

Hans Weingartner

Writers:

Katharina Held, Hans Weingartner

Stars:

Daniel Brühl, Julia Jentsch, Stipe Erceg

11 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Daniel Brühl	...	Jan
Julia Jentsch	...	Jule
Stipe Erceg	...	Peter
Burghart Klaußner	...	Hardenberg (as Burghart Klaussner)
Peer Martiny	...	Villenbesitzer Jürgen
Petra Zieser	...	Villenbesitzerin
Laura Schmidt	...	Tochter Laura
Sebastian Butz	...	Sohn
Oliver Bröcker	...	Aggressiver Globalisierungsgegner
Knut Berger	...	Globalisierungsgegner
Hanns Zischler	...	Vermieter
Claudio Caiolo	...	Paolo
Bernhard Bettermann	...	Jules Chef
Sylvia Haider	...	Neureiche Frau 1
Claudia Jakobshagen	...	Neureiche Frau 2

Storyline

Berlin student Jule is hoplessly indebted due to an accident she caused, uninsuredly hitting a rich businessman's limousine. Evicted from her flat she moves in with her boyfrend Peter and soon learns that Peter and his flatmate, Jan, are breaking into luxurious mansions at night. Instead of stealing or vandalizing, though, they carefully and ornately rearrange furniture and valulables and leave obscure messages. Jule convinces Jan, who has a crush on her, to pay a visit to the villa of her creditor.

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Plot Keywords:

activism | trio | euro | kidnapping | propaganda | 

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Taglines:

Your Days Of Plenty Are Numbered

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, a scene of sexuality, and some drug use

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Germany] Official site [Taiwan]

Country:

Germany Austria

Language:

German English

Release Date:

25 November 2004 (Germany)

Also Known As:

The Edukators

Filming Locations:

Germany

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$393,664 (Germany), 10 December 2004

Opening Weekend USA:

$10,075, 24 July 2005, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$175,493, 16 October 2005

Company Credits

Production Co:

Y3 Film, Coop99 Filmproduktion, Südwestrundfunk (SWR)

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The song "Where's The Real Sky" is credited to Jeff Cole on the soundtrack and was mentioned in the movie as a favorite artist of Jan and Jule. Jeff Cole is a pseudonym for the score-writer, Andreas Wodraschke. The singer is his friend Sam Genders of London.

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Goofs

On the first night at the cabin, Peter puts a dark green blanket over Hardenberg. In the morning, when they all wake, Hardenberg is covered with a completely different blanket.

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Quotes

Jan: I've got news for you, Corporate Man: your days are numbered!

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Crazy Credits

There is an additional take after the credits related to the last project of the three protagonists.

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Alternate Versions

All foreign (non-German) theatrical versions omit a scene in the ending. The reason for this is that the scene had not been finished at the time the movie was shown at the Cannes film festival. But the distribution rights had already been sold to 44 countries and the director didn't want to force local distributors to take the new ending.

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Connections

References The Matrix (1999)

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Soundtracks

Hallelujah
Written by Leonard Cohen
Performed by Jeff Buckley
Published by Sony/ATV Music
Released by Sony

User Reviews

"You have too much money."

Don't let anyone tell you horror stories about the camera work, they probably never had an ounce of imagination anywhere in their bodies!

For those of us who are bored blind with standard Hollywood-ian movies, this kind of camera work is very refreshing. The constant motion puts us right into the characters' world and helps foster an instant connection with them. Not that one wouldn't connect with them without the fancy directing! On the contrary, Jan, Jule, and Peter will reawaken the idealist in anyone.

The movie is essentially about three friends with seemingly no particular direction in life other than petty political activism now and then. But Peter and Jan have found a very clever way of subverting the socio-economic system they so despise. Calling themselves "the Edukators", they break into the homes of the fabulously wealthy only to make some absurd adjustments to the arrangement of their furniture and leave a simple note behind: "You have too much money."

With this basic plot, The Edukators delves into that ill-defined human notion of morality, eventually blurring the line between the ethics of social politics and the ethics of personal relationships.

Don't let the plot scare you, you don't have to be an anarchist to enjoy this movie! It's well-written, beautifully shot, and flawlessly performed. Some of the drawbacks are that it gets a little long and preachy at the end (which happens fairly often to new directors), but let's not nitpick. I'm willing to gloss over the film's (rare) faults because, in the end, there is far too much to take home from this movie. It's a real shame that some would wish to dismiss it as some crackpot anarchist film.