Das Unwort (2020)

One evening in the run-up to Christmas, the parents of students Max Berlinger, Karim Ansari, and Reza Marschner are summoned to a school conference, where, with the help of the school supervisory authority, a decision is to be made about whether Max will be expelled. During a confrontation, Max bit off Karim’s earlobe and broke Reza’s nose. Only the Berlingers show up; the parent representatives and the teacher serving as a trusted confidant are absent, so janitor Eichmann has to sit in as a panel member. In their reports, Principal Stege and homeroom teacher Ritter give an inadequate account of the background to the incident. Flashbacks, however, show how Max had been repeatedly bullied in the preceding weeks after his Jewish background became known to the class. Stege now argues that antisemitic incidents do not happen at his school. Max’s parents and Dr. Nüssen-Winkelmann, the representative of the school supervisory authority, both feel that a lot is being played down. It turns out that during breaks Stege locked Jewish students in the chemistry lab to protect them. Homeroom teacher Ritter eventually describes the bullying in the class and admits that she did not intervene during the decisive confrontation. Reza’s mother arrives late, and heated arguments break out. Eventually, Dr. Nüssen-Winkelmann loses her composure and tells her to send her no-good son back to Iran, where he belongs. Afterwards, the Berlingers clash with Ms. Ritter and Reza’s mother, but the janitor manages to separate them by setting off the school alarm. He tells the others that he cannot understand how the elite can treat one another this way. It is no wonder, he says, that the younger generation does no better. Mr. Berlinger decides to visit Karim’s father to sort things out. He goes to the Ansari family’s home with his wife and children, where they initially get into another verbal confrontation. But they manage to reconcile, and the next day the two fathers go to see Dr. Nüssen-Winkelmann at the school supervisory authority. They persuade her not to expel the students, but to have them make amends through community service instead. When Max and Karim nearly get into another confrontation at the retirement home, a resident dispels the tension with the remark, “Arabs are the Jews of today,” and the situation turns to laughter. A year later, the Berlingers celebrate Hanukkah. Stege had become the district mayor of Berlin-Mitte, but after a scandal he has since had to give up all his positions. Dr. Nüssen-Winkelmann and Reza’s mother jointly head the German-Iranian Trade Association.