The Edukators(2004)
dir. Hans Weingartner
Activists break in to move the furniture.
Where to watch: Free with a library card: Kanopy (JustWatch US, checked 2026-08-24, older; re-check). unSUB lists Amazon rent/buy with no prices, unconfirmed. Verify.Letterboxd ↗
Jan and Peter are young Berlin activists who break into rich people's homes, move the furniture around and leave a note: 'You have too much money.' They never steal anything. When Peter's girlfriend, Jule, joins them on a break-in and everything goes wrong, they end up holding a wealthy man hostage in a mountain cabin and arguing about whether any of it was ever worth it. A thriller about what happens to idealism when it meets the people it is aimed at.
Why it’s here
It's a film about a generation's anger and the line between a gesture and a crime. What's punk is the prank-as-protest and the film's refusal to make it simple. What's pedagogical is the moral argument inside the cabin, where the captive turns out to be a former '68 radical, which is a good prompt for talking about how people change and who gets to decide. Note: R-rated; a kidnapping, break-ins and some drug use; the film does not endorse the crimes. German with subtitles.
Where This Film Lives
- Setting
- Germany • Europe
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