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The Edukators (Die Fetten Jahre Sind Vorbei)

I went into this movie completely blind, besides recognizing it as a German film (based on the title). On a stormy Sunday afternoon, I ducked into the theater under the brief recommendation of my mother and a strong desire to find shelter from the rain.

I was captivated right from the start, as the opening scene both sets up the premise and leaves the viewer wanting answers. Who are the Edukators?

The Edukators, you see, are basically cat burglars. The catch? They don’t steal anything. With a very sophisticated system of breaking into homes of the bourgeois, they merely rearrange the furniture, leaving behind a note declaring, “Die Fetten Jahre sind vorbei” (your days of plenty are numbered). The reason? To frighten people; as Edukator Jan (Daniel Bruhl) explains, “It’s a creepy feeling knowing someone has been in your house, that someone is watching.”

Jan and his friend Peter (Stipe Erceg) are young and idealistic, hanging up posters for activist organizations by day, terrorizing the rich by night. They have been doing this stunt for long enough to have the break-ins down to a science, but not long enough to have caused any suspicions among the police or even Peter’s girlfriend, Jule (Julia Jentsch). However, upon learning of the boys’ scheme, Jule, a struggling waitress with an incomprehensible debt, immediately wants in on the action. Things inevitably go awry on several levels, and the movie takes a new spin.

And that is one of the reasons this movie so well-done – it constantly keeps you guessing, and with every turn, you’re more drawn in to the chaotic situation these three have wound up in. The characters seem real and the viewer can’t help feeling sympathy for their struggle; that brings a moral dilemma as well – you want them to succeed, yet you know what they are doing is wrong, at least in the legal sense.

The movie is long – 127 minutes – and yet by the end, I barely realized I had a chill from my soaking wet clothes. I was too enthralled in the message of the Edukators.

Written by: Jill McAree

Reviewers Rating: 8
Reader's Rating: 9.00
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