In her documentary filmed during the 2016-2017 academic year, Maria Speth follows the title character, a charismatic sixth-grade teacher with a counterculture bent, and his mostly immigrant students in a German village north of Frankfurt.
Though we don’t learn a lot about the lives outside school, a few students come into special focus, nearly upstaging their teacher and contributing to the emotional richness of the film.
Unlike Black Jungle and other Hollywood movies, this isn’t a heroic-teacher drama about how to maintain idealism in the face of adversity.
Instead, it’s an acknowledgment of the hard work of learning, and the magic of simple decency.
Mr. Bachmann and His Class: 2022 Best Films (Documentaries)
Mr. Bachmann and His Class
In her documentary filmed during the 2016-2017 academic year, Maria Speth follows the title character, a charismatic sixth-grade teacher with a counterculture bent, and his mostly immigrant students in a German village north of Frankfurt.
Though we don’t learn a lot about the lives outside school, a few students come into special focus, nearly upstaging their teacher and contributing to the emotional richness of the film.
Unlike Black Jungle and other Hollywood movies, this isn’t a heroic-teacher drama about how to maintain idealism in the face of adversity.
Instead, it’s an acknowledgment of the hard work of learning, and the magic of simple decency.