I've just come back from watching "the Edukators" in a cinema in Ipswich, England. From the reviews I was expecting a light comedy. The film isn't like that at all: still, I'm very happy that I went to see it. The start of "the Edukators" reminded me of J. G. Ballard's novel Cocaine Nights, which features a man who breaks into high security luxury complexes not so much as to damage and steal property, but to shake the residents up. Ballard's protagonist intends to make the affluent but complacent and isolated residents bind together in crimewatch activities that will lead to a reawakened sense of community. The young men who call themselves "the Edukators" want to stir the villa residents of Berlin into hearing whispers that they have too much money: to remind them of the other half of the world and how the other half lives. Or rather, can't live, because of low wages and debt.<br /><br />I was a little annoyed that the film couches the world into the haves and the have nots, with nothing in-between. Although Jule, the heroine, is crippled by a 100, 000 Euro debt due to a car accident in which she totalled a Mercedes, her boyfriend and his friend Jan drive cars, have cell phones,live in Berlin, and fly to Barcelona (Jule's boyfriend apparently travels to Barcelona for his career but it's never exactly clear what his work is). In their arguments with the business tycoon who Jule is enslaved to (it's revealed that he has three cars in his huge garage, so he hardly misses the Mercedes Jule has to pay for) the two young men clearly place themselves in the same position as the oppressed workers of the third world. Jule, however, sees that their demonstrations against sweatshop labour aren't going to really change the situation for the developing countries' child labourers.<br /><br />That said, I was delighted to see a film that tackles the consciences of both the young not seeing places for themselves in the all-persuasive consumerist society and those who once had ideals, who once tried to change society, and have awakened to find themselves middle aged and voting conservative. The tycoon defends himself, saying he works 14 hour days: at first he wanted to be able to provide security and good education for his children, now he thinks buying new things makes people happy. I don't think he manipulates his kidnappers: I saw real pleasure in his being able to get away from his mobile phone, boss, wife, cleaning lady and job pressures, and being able to touch base with the recollections of his youth. I see his commune experiences as genuine and a reminder of attempts to change society one relationship at a time. And in the end the 60s generation did change society by making the personal political, even if the communes are now only rose-tinged memories in the back of the minds of fat cats now running conglomerates.<br /><br />What I enjoyed most about "the Edukators" is the question it raises about its three young major characters, and how their generation can make a difference to the world of the 21st century.<br /><br />SPOILER SPACE <br /><br />Maybe in the end the tycoon called the police: it didn't look like an easy decision for him at any rate. I'd like to see the last shot of the satellite dishes as an indication that the trio made it to the island and blacked out all the TVs across Europe, cancelling the force that controls society from within. Ballard's hero would applaud them.<br /><br />By the way, didn't it strike anyone else as ironic that so much of the film takes place in Berlin, which only 15 years ago was divided into two societies, one which welcome the tycoon, and one which would encourage the debate about how to bring out the revolution? As Marx said, "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it."