"The Edukators" is provocative little political thriller about two left- leaning young men who end up loving the same woman.

They channel their upper class resentment into somewhat ludicrous but highly amusing acts, which recall the actions of the Situationist International group, which began in Italy in the ‘60s.

The Situationists were a group that believed that people should channel their energy into constructing revolutionary situations. The group never used the term "situationists" to describe themselves, and they thought the term was only used by people opposed to their agenda.

Peter (Stipe Erceg) and Jan (Daniel Bruhl) select the addresses of wealthy people from a yacht club member list, and then they break into the members’ houses (one of the boys knows how to dismantle alarm systems) and rearrange the furniture. They also leave vaguely threatening messages such as, "Your days of plenty are ending" and "You are too rich." Through these acts, they hope to become "educators" to the corrupt classicist society. Of course, after awhile they get in over their heads.

A female addition to the group complicates the situation. Peter’s girlfriend Jule is a struggling waitress. She helps Jan and Peter pass out anti-sweat shop leaflets in a shoe store until they are kicked out.

She has her own reasons for hating the elite. Jule is heavily in debt because she is being unjustly sued by a rich man, and she has just gotten evicted from her apartment. While Peter is away on holiday, he asks Jan to help Jule clean up the apartment that she is vacating, and romantic feelings develop between Jule and Jan.

Jan alerts Jule about the radical duo’s activities, and Jule convinces him to help her break into the house of the rich man who took her car away.

Things go awry and eventually the trio ends up kidnapping the man. They learn that he used to be a former commune leader and a member of Students for a Democratic Society in the ‘60s. As the young people get to know him they find that he is somewhat sympathetic, and the viewer’s loyalties are divided.

The young people could conceivably end up in the same boat as him in the future, and he even tells them, "Under 30, not liberal, no heart; over 30 and still liberal, no brain."

"The Edukators" reminded me of another German political film, "A Knife in the Head," because both movies leave the viewer with a profound skepticism regarding both the left and right.

The film isn’t brilliant, but is always watchable, clever, and
thought provoking. Though it is not nearly as outstanding or edgy as
some of the ‘70s political films that came out of the original German
New Wave