India urgently needs Herr Bachmann to put balm on torn hearts

In an age when attention spans have been dropping by the second, it’s impossible to imagine that a documentary would be able to hold you in thrall for its 3 hours 37 minutes long duration. But Maria Speth’s Herr Bachmann und seine Klasse (Mr Bachmann and His Class) manages to accomplish exactly that.

It transports and transplants the viewers into a unique classroom in the German town of Stadtallendorf and gives an intimate peep into teacher Dieter Bachmann’s daily interaction with his primary school class of immigrant students.

While Speth, her crew and the fly-on-the-wall camera all but invisibilise themselves to capture their subjects at the most candid and unaffected over a period of six months, it is an experience that proves immersive and riveting, affecting and educational—all at the same time—for the viewers. Herr Bachmann ... is unobtrusive filmmaking at its best.

But more than the filmmaking, it’s the subject that is of even greater import. 60 something, scruffy and bearded Bachmann, on the verge of retirement, is the personification of benevolence and amiableness.

In which classroom does one find kids being asked to take a quick nap first thing on a cold, wintry morning to compensate for being forced out of their beds early to attend school? Where do you find a teacher encouraging the kids to hug and comfort their classmate who confesses missing her grandparent?

Compassion pours out of every frame of the film as Bachmann goes about trying make the kids integrate in the new world they have been forced to move to, help them find a new home and a new life in a new land and feel a sense of belongingness away from their roots.

Which isn’t easy, especially in the light of the incredible diversity: the group has children representing twelve different nationalities—Turkish, Russian, Bulgarian, Kazakhstani, Moroccan among others. Their demands are different: some are still grappling with the German language while others are better adjusted in the ways of the new world. Almost all belong to the underprivileged working class.

Winner of the Silver Bear at the recently concluded Berlinale, Herr Bachmann makes us familiar with and get invested in, in the life of not just the teacher (despite the film’s reticence in telling us a lot about him) but each of the students as well.

It also underlines the significance of experimentation in teaching than in the straightjacketed, outmoded practices. Bachmann is progressive and modern in the way he manages to connect and communicate with his students and is able to give them support and sustenance with his out-of-the-box methods.

These aren’t bookish but experiential and holistic, that encourage children to express themselves, share opinions than just memorise obscure lessons, that involve a deep and enriching dive into the world of arts, crafts, music, dance, cooking and baking and also makes them confront issues of problematic politics and Nazi history, community and sexuality. It is about teaching the languages as well as life skills for them to take on the High School, well and fully equipped.

I was reminded a lot of the film recently on seeing the video of a Muslim boy being thrashed mercilessly in Ghaziabad for entering the temple to get some drinking water. The majoritarian brutality that makes essential humanity slip away, the heartlessness that makes you deny the very basics to a child of another religion and community is a stark contrast to what Bachmann stands for: plurality, multiculturalism and equality.

It made me go back to Bachmann with renewed respect. Here’s a man, who is trying to help someone live to the fullest despite the diminishment of their reality. It is about becoming one with the “Other” with empathy, patience and compassion, humanity and heart. A few Mr Bachmanns are much needed indeed and would be more than welcome in India at this point in time.