The Edukators (Die Fetten Jahre Sind Vorbei) Review

The presence of actor Daniel Brühl in the lead role of this German satire about capitalism, subversion and the revolutionary principle suggests it could well be a companion piece to the similarly-themed, crowd-pleasing comedy Good Bye Lenin!.

Here Brühl plays Jan, an idealistic, angry young anarchist whose idea of subverting The Man is to break into the mansions of the local yacht club with the help of buddy Peter (Erceg). They don't steal anything, preferring to rearrange the treasured possessions of the rich and shameless and leave pointed messages about the dangers of capitalist materialism (eg "Your days of plenty are numbered") in the hope of re-educating the middle class masses. It's the equivalent of keying a BMW, only slightly more political.

When Peter's activist girlfriend Jule (Jentsch) gets involved in their nocturnal raids, things get out of hand and they unexpectedly take possession of a hostage - rich businessman Hardenberg (Klaußner). Absconding to a remote mountain chalet, the trio find themselves entangled in a complex love triangle and burdened with a prisoner who is apparently not the capitalist bullyboy he appears to be.