SALA DE PROFESORES

İlker Çatak

Germany

- 2023

National premiere

Carla Nowak, a dedicated sports and math teacher, starts her first job at a high school. When a series of thefts occur at the school and one of her students is suspected, she decides to get to the bottom of the matter on her own. Carla tries to mediate between outraged parents, opinionated colleagues and aggressive students, but is relentlessly confronted with the structures of the school system.

İlker Çatak

He was born in Berlin in 1984. In 2005, he directed his first short film in collaboration with Johannes Duncker (‘Als Namibia eine Stadt war...’), before earning his bachelor’s degree in film and television directing in 2009. He then completed a master’s degree in directing at the Hamburg Media School. During this time, he made the short films ‘Alte Schule’ (2013), ‘Wo wir sind’ (2014), and his graduation film ‘Sadakat’ (2015), among others. With the latter, he received the prestigious Student Oscar for Best Foreign Short Film. In 2017, he made his first feature film, ‘Es war einmal Indianerland’, followed in 2019 by ‘Es gilt das gesprochene Wort’, premiered at the Filmfest München. In 2021 directed ‘Stambul Garden’ and two years later he premiered ‘The Teachers’ Lounge’ (2023) at Panorama at Berlin International Film Festival, and won the Label Europa Cinemas and CICAE Awards. The film will represent Germany in the race for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film.