19/02/2024 - BERLINALE 2024: The Austrian filmmaker showcases a difficult reality in her new documentary, in which she portrays a class of children in Vienna’s biggest primary school

(© Nini Tschavoll)

Children are our future. But in Favoriten, one of the Viennese districts with the highest levels of immigration, this future is often stifled by a lack of German skills, inadequate support from the school system, and the friction between integration and tradition at home. Austrian filmmaker Ruth Beckermann showcases this difficult reality in her Berlinale Encounters-opening documentary Favoriten [+see also:
film review
interview: Ruth Beckermann
film profile], in which she portrays a class of children in Vienna’s biggest primary school.

Cineuropa: What appealed to you about zooming in on a class of schoolchildren?
Ruth Beckermann: I was attracted by the reality of today's society. The children we filmed are our present and our future. They exist in all major European cities. Thinking back to my school days, or even the next generation’s school days, cities have changed a lot. That's why I wanted to film in a school that reflects this over a longer period.

You also made a conscious decision to focus on a primary-school class. This is a crucial time in these kids’ lives, as those years lay the foundations for their future education and therefore their professional careers.
There are hardly any films about this age group. I am interested in children at this stage in life because they are no longer in nursery school, but they are not teenagers yet either. They are still so soft, malleable, open and curious. That soon changes with puberty. I also think it's nice that we, as viewers, project a lot onto the children. We ask ourselves what will become of this girl, what will become of that boy… We project a future onto them that may not materialise, but that's what cinema is all about – developing fantasies.

The question is also whether they can break out of their current social class.
We hear the children in the film talking about the blue-collar jobs of their parents. We need people who fulfil these tasks, but there should also be mobility in society and the opportunity to do something other than become a construction worker. But many people don't want that; they want these people to stay where they are.

You also have a teacher here who has the same background, and so she is very empathetic and can talk to the children.
She is also the future. She is a special teacher because she has so much energy and a real talent for teaching. In the future, there will be more teachers with a similar background to the children. Maybe some of these children now will become teachers. That's good because they can talk to the mums who don't speak German.

How do you tell a story about these children and manage to focus so much on them that you don't even realise that you, as the filmmaker, are the outsider in the room?
You start filming and slowly get to know the children. A few main protagonists then slowly crystallise because they are more interesting or because they put their hands up more often. There are various reasons for that. Film, in that regard, is unfair.

Was it a challenge to simply observe here? The children also film themselves with mobile phones.
I wasn't allowed to say anything at all. My co-writer, Elisabeth Menasse, and I sat in a corner, and the microphone and camera moved around the classroom. I wanted lots of close-ups and for the children to speak on camera as much as possible. That was a big challenge.

Was there anything you absolutely didn't want to show?
I didn't want to show masks. We were filming during COVID-19, and you can't portray people who are constantly wearing masks. We were at the mercy of the lockdowns. In between, whenever they were in the classroom, they tested for COVID twice a week, and if they all tested negative, they didn't have to wear masks. As soon as we got word, we arrived two hours later.