Mr. Bachmann and His Class

"At 3:30 hours of this German movie can cause a certain discouragement. After all, there are few cases in which such long durations are justified. However, incredibly, 'Mr. Bachmann and His Class' almost justifies itself. Directed by Maria Speth ('Living Life'), the feature tells the story of Mr. Bachmann, an elementary school teacher in Germany who teaches mainly foreigners and children of foreigners, some of them even refugees. There is an impressive diversity in that room alone. How to teach everyone equally? From this, throughout these 3:30 hours, Speth has one theme in mind, which is not Mr. Bachmann himself, but empathy. The teacher, who uses various devices to teach these people who usually arrive in his classroom without speaking a word of German, brings arts, music and the like to make children and pre-adolescents understand language and culture. We enter, slowly and invitingly, into Bachmann's and his students' routine. We understand the difficulties of some, the relationship of the master with others. It is touching, for example, when the teacher discovers that a dedicated student is leaving the city. We feel, as soon as Bachmann wilts in the chair, all that frustration, pain. It is a feeling of sadness, which is mixed with the happiness of knowing that there are people like him, out there, spread around the world."