Das Fliegende Klassenzimmer (3 Stars)

The title of this German film means "The Flying Classroom". The poster shown above gives the wrong impression. There are no floating children in the school.

The film is based on a children's book with the same name written by Erich Kästner in 1933. Judging from a synopsis I've read of the novel, it deals with several semi-unrelated episodes of things that happen in the school. I say semi because it's the same children in each episode. The film concentrates on one of the episodes. Apart from that, the film has been set in the modern world. The children have mobile phones.

Martina is a 13-year-old girl in Berlin. She's been offered a free grant to go to an elite boarding school, the Johann-Sigismund-School, in Kirchberg in South Tyrol (the German speaking area in northern Italy). She has a two week trial before the summer holidays, and if she's accepted she'll be a full time school student after the summer holidays.

From the beginning she's caught up in the rivalry between the internals and the externals. Half of the children live in the school, the other half are the children of local residents and just visit the school for lessons. Martina's grades are poor, so she has to take extra lessons to catch up, but she still has time to put on a play about the classroom of the future.

Just as important as her school activities is the relationship between the strict head of the school, Justus Bökh, and a drop-out called Robert who lives in a railway waggon on top of the hill. They both went to the school as children and became friends, even though Justus was an internal and Robert was an external. For reasons that the film doesn't make clear the two men haven't spoken for ten years. Martina attempts to bring them back together.

There are a few things in the film that don't make sense. Why would a family in Berlin want to send their daughter to a boarding school in another country? A rich family might do this, but Martina's family isn't rich. Why is Martina given a grant? And the biggest problem I have is the time frame. How can Martina cram so much into such a short space of time? If they'd said six weeks or even four weeks I could have accepted it.

The film didn't really interest me. I couldn't relate to Martina's school problems. The story of the two old friends reuniting was more interesting, but it was spoilt by Robert being a chain smoker. It's supposed to be a joke, because Robert lives in a non-smoking waggon, but I didn't find it funny. Is that the sort of character that should be shown in a film for children?

The film didn't appeal to Oliver either. He was bored. After the first 20 minutes he kept bugging me, asking how long the film had to go.

It's curious that this is the fourth time the story has been filmed. The book was filmed in 1954, 1973 and 2003. That's a sign that it must be a good book. The previous three versions must have been better.