Contra

Contra (2020) is a German drama-comedy you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Sönke Wortmann. Law professor Richard Pohl has never been careful with his words — until a public remark aimed at a latecomer, law student Naima Hamid, gets filmed and circulates online.

The university president's solution is not dismissal. It is a deal: Pohl will coach Naima for a national student debate championship. Christoph Maria Herbst plays Pohl — caustic and set in his ways, but not cartoonishly cruel. Nilam Farooq's Naima refuses to play the grateful mentee; she arrives with her own arguments and keeps pushing back. Their friction is the engine of the film, and Wortmann is honest enough to let it stay uncomfortable rather than resolve too cleanly.

The film raises a question it does not fully answer: when an institution repairs its image by staging a redemption story, who actually benefits? Stream Contra (2020) online on iFILM.