Classrooms are small representations of human society. By filling them with children possessing different mannerisms and attitudes, and looking at it through the camera lens an outlook of the society where the film takes place can be gained. Apart from this classrooms can also depict the human truths of the youth who walk through them and the experiences and challenges that shape them who they become from grade to grade. How a film depicts the kids within its classrooms is not just a representation of a specific societal diaspora but a representation of the seeds and forces that have created the adults of the films society. From the late Abbas Kiarostami’s “First Case, Second Case” to Laurent Cantet’s “Class Room” and Michael Haneke’s “White Ribbon” ( the last two films have both won the Palme d’or), this understanding comes from any film that deals genuinely and honestly with the lives of children.
“Silent Revolution” with its suspenseful and realistic story is a great platform for the kind of outlook I spoke about before. The core of the film is about a dispute that makes the film memorable: Two schoolboys are locked in a fight for justice with their school’s principal in 1956 Germany. They are caught in a bind, they might end up snitching on one another. Kurt who is stuck between telling his on friend Theo or keeping his secret; decides not to say anything. In another part of the story Kurt decides to befriend Theo’s girlfriend but Theo doesn’t see this as a betrayal. The real betrayal would have been telling on him to the principal and since Kurt never did that their friendship remains.
