Mr. Bachmann and His Class took director Maria Speth years to research, six months to shoot, and another three years to edit.
The fly-on-the-wall documentary follows the eponymous Herr Bachmann, an extraordinary elementary school teacher in the industrial town of Stadtallendorf outside Frankfurt.
His class of sixth-graders, 12- to 14-year-olds, most of them recent immigrants of the children of immigrants, is the kind of group often discussed in the tabloid media, or in worrying tones on the country's serious talk shows.
The picture Speth provides, with her "open-ended observation" is much more empathic, and far more hopeful. "One of the most effortlessly absorbing and deeply encouraging nonfiction films of recent memory," The Hollywood.
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