Der Die Das

An elementary school in a depressed neighborhood. This documentary by Sophie Narr describes elementary school reality in one of Berlin's poorer neighborhoods. Packed with family problems (migration background, divorce, social decline and more) five young children enter school. Their teacher is not at all able to see these kids as individuals with a background but pretty much right away addresses them as unwilling and uncooperative. Watching the film you can observe these children trying to cope with having to learn to read, write and calculate, but also with teachers doing their job not having a a clue about them and their problems and the social competition in class - and more or less fail. The classroom scenes are combined with camera observations on the schools playground, on the way to school, at the shopping mall and in in interviews a psychologist makes with the protagonists.