97 mins
In hardly any other country are pupils sorted out as mercilessly as in Germany. The Hauptschule is seen as a reservoir of failures, of those who are stupid, lazy and prone to violence. Nobody goes to secondary school voluntarily. Uli Kick spent a year observing a year 9 class at a Munich secondary modern school during their final year. In his film, only the real experts on secondary modern schools have their say: a teacher who loves her pupils and fights for their presence and attention. And of course the pupils, who have to fight against hopelessness and puberty, but above all against the circumstances they come from. Half of them have only one parent, and many of them speak little or no German at home. Some of them would be completely on their own if it weren't for their teacher and the wonderful janitor who, on the one hand, ensures order via video surveillance and, on the other, takes a greater emotional interest in the pupils' worries than some of their parents.