Das fliegende Klassenzimmer (2003)

Jonathan is an orphan who was adopted by a captain. He arrives in Leipzig by plane during Advent. He is supposed to join the St. Thomas Choir there. At the train station, he meets a young shoplifter and lets her get away. She loses her sunglasses in the process, and Jonathan picks them up. At the boarding school, Jonathan is quickly welcomed by the others. His roommates have a secret meeting place in an old railway carriage. One evening, they find a man there named Bob, nicknamed “the Non-Smoker.” The man claims to own the property and begins a friendly relationship with the boys. Jonathan soon learns about the bitter rivalry between the St. Thomas Choir students and the “externals” in their classes. The “externals” are the students who are not members of the choir. When Bach’s Christmas Oratorio is to be performed at St. Thomas Church, the “externals” steal the soprano parts and kidnap Sebastian, the son of Director Kreuzkamm. During a gigantic snowball fight between the choir students and the externals, Sebastian is freed, but those involved arrive too late for the performance. When confronted by Cantor Justus Bökh, the boys truthfully explain that they had to break the rules to help their friend. They expect to be punished, but instead Justus tells them how he himself broke the rules as a student at St. Thomas to visit his seriously ill mother. He understands that there can be good reasons to break rules. As their “punishment,” the boys are told to prepare the Christmas play. In the old railway carriage, they find the script for the play “The Flying Classroom,” whose lines they like because they work well as rap lyrics. The boys decide to perform it as a rap musical and want to bring Mona in as a dancer. Jonathan falls increasingly in love with the young shoplifter, who has since turned out to be Mona, one of the “externals.” During class, he returns her sunglasses. In gratitude, she invites him as her only guest to her 12th birthday party, which the two spend in the old railway carriage. There, Jonathan gives her a costume. She is delighted, but says she cannot take part, partly because she has been friends with the other externals for a long time. When Justus drops by to watch the rehearsals purely out of interest, he recognizes the lines. Without offering any explanation, he curtly forbids the boys to perform the play. After all their elaborate preparations, this makes Jonathan furious. He accuses Justus of hypocrisy and kicks one of the stage sets, causing a fire to break out in the hall. The boys plan to cover for Jonathan to prevent him from being expelled over the fire. Pressed by the boys and Kathrin, the school’s dance teacher, Justus is asked to explain why he banned the play. Reluctantly, he tells them that he wrote it himself in the late 1970s with his friend Robert. It was never performed because Robert fled to the West beforehand, which not only caused Justus great pain but also led to his expulsion from school, since people assumed he had known about Robert’s escape plans. Instead of pursuing an artistic career, he then began training as an auto mechanic. Moved by this, Jonathan admits that he started the fire, although unintentionally. Justus takes his side. After hearing the story, the boys realize that the “Non-Smoker” must be Robert, Justus’s childhood friend. In a surprise gesture, they bring the two estranged friends together, and they are deeply moved. Little Uli von Simmern, one of Jonathan’s roommates, is often teased for his size and called a coward. His best friend Matz urges him to do something brave that will impress the others. A few days later, Uli jumps from the roof with two helium balloons. He crashes down and lies unconscious in the schoolyard. The boys, especially Matz, fear that Uli may be dead. But Justus eventually brings the reassuring news that Uli has only broken his leg. These events put Justus’s position as a teacher in jeopardy—several parents want to take their children out of a school where things like this happen. The boys decide to add a short version of the “Classroom” rap to the traditional performance of the Christmas Oratorio; the costumes and sets were destroyed in the fire. This convinces the parents and the board of trustees. Justus is allowed to stay, and Robert is to be hired as the school’s new doctor.