Our very own Claudia Jolly hosts a Q&A with The Teachers’ Lounge lead actress Leonie Benesch. Her character Carla Nowak is a dedicated and idealistic new high-school teacher, seeming to have connected with her Year 8 students, who are engaged and eager to learn in her maths class. But something is bubbling underneath the surface, and she’s quickly thrust into a delicate situation when a Turkish boy is suspected of theft. Not convinced of his guilt, Carla takes matters into her own hands and inadvertently starts down a path that soon begins to spiral out of control. As she tries to mediate between students, parents and opinionated colleagues, she is relentlessly confronted with the structures of the school system. Carla is pushed to her limits, and the school becomes a proxy for the cultural and ethical clashes of modern day society.

Filmed at the Garden Cinema on 23rd April 2024