The Edukators

The Edukators (Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei, 2004) is an Austrian-German drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Hans Weingartner. Jan (Daniel Brühl), Peter, and Julia are Berlin activists with an unusual protest method: they break into the homes of the wealthy and rearrange the furniture, leaving a note — "The fat years are over." Nothing stolen. Just a message.

Then a break-in goes wrong. Jan and Julia run into the owner — a businessman named Hardenberg — and the only way out is to take him hostage. The three activists drive him to a remote Alpine cabin, where the confrontation they never planned begins. It turns out Hardenberg has a more complicated past than his net worth suggests, and the idealists have contradictions of their own.

Shot on digital video with an almost improvisational energy, the film keeps every argument alive rather than handing either side an easy victory. Brühl carries the moral ambiguity of a generation that knows what it's against but not quite what it's for. Stream The Edukators (2004) online on iFILM.