The pupils at the Viennese school where Ilkay Idiskut teaches come from a wide variety of countries. Each child brings their own cultural baggage into the classroom – as we hear, for example, a boy say that girls shouldn’t wear bikinis. Hints of the children’s underlying traumas are revealed through a disturbing drawing or a question about violent child abduction.
The children are each given an iPhone for making videos, offering a glimpse into their personal lives. No matter how different the 25 boys and girls are, they have one thing in common: they are doing their best to learn German. They are not the only ones: more than 60 percent of the children at Viennese primary schools don’t speak German as their first language.
At the same time, there’s a major shortage of teachers. Filmmaker Ruth Beckermann took this tension as her starting point during her three years of filming. And she movingly reveals its impact when Idiskut has to go on maternity leave and there is no replacement.
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