Das schweigende Klassezimmer (2018)

Directed by: Lars Kraume | 111 minutes | drama, history | Actors: Jonas Dassler, Michael del Coco, Sina Ebell, Judith Engel, Tom Gramenz, Michael Gwisdek, Nils Hohenhövel, Max Hopp, Rolf Kanies, Burghart Klaußner, Lena Klenke, Jakob Kraume, Karl Kraume, Daniel Krauss, Lena Labisch, Nora Labisch , Florian Lukas, Isaiah Michalski, Rainer Reiners, Leonard Scheicher, Götz Schubert, Jördis Triebel, Carina N. Wiese, Ronald Zehrfeld, Kira Zurhausen

Just as the Second World War is an endless inspiration for Dutch filmmakers, the former East Germany is a grateful source for their German colleagues. From the masterful ‘Das Leben der Anderen’ (2006) and ‘Goodbye Lenin’ (2003), to lesser-known dramas such as ‘Barbara’ from 2012. What these films mainly show is the crushing influence of the political system on everyday life. of the ordinary East German.

Something similar also applies to the drama ‘Das schweigende Klassenzimmer’ from 2018. In 1956, a group of East German students learns about an uprising in Hungary and decides to observe two minutes of silence for the Hungarian victims during class. A small act with big consequences. The students risk being excluded from the exam if they don’t reveal how they learned about the Hungarian uprising and which classmate the idea for the two-minute silence came from. It sharpens the mutual relationships between the students.

We immediately believe that this drama is based on a true event. We know the simultaneously pragmatic and sick machinations of the communist party apparatus from numerous films (such as ‘Das Leben der Anderen’) and books (such as by the Czechs Hrabal and Kundera). Although we know these machinations, they continue to amaze and amuse, in a slightly perverse way. We also recognize the oppressive rigidity of the communist party hierarchy, where every misstep by a party member can herald his downfall.

Unfortunately ‘Das schweigende Klassenzimmer’ tries too hard to please the viewer. The three leaders of the uprising are strikingly handsome, their opponents all ugly. The sentimental music is annoyingly present and continuously manipulates the viewer’s feelings. The dialogues are of the explanatory kind and there is too little gray in the (figuratively) black and white world of the drama. Moreover, the film tends towards the sentimental, some elements are implausible and it is hard to imagine that these childlike 18-year-olds have not suffered any damage from their early years during the Second World War. ‘Das Schweigende Klassenzimmer’ is therefore an incredible, simplistic and sentimental Ossi drama. But one that doesn’t bore for a second.