Film Review: Favoriten
by Rose Finlay

Ruth Beckermann and Elisabeth Menasse | Austria | 2024

In 2024, more than 60 percent of elementary students in Vienna do not speak German as their first language. Ruth Beckermann’s sensitive documentary shines a light on a classroom in Vienna’s Favoriten quarter where more than 50 percent of residents have a foreign background. The camera follows twenty-five children and their teacher Ilkay Idiskut for three years as they proceed through their final years of elementary school.

As the years progress, we see the struggles inherent in the system. The students are lucky to have a teacher like Ms. Idiskut who is capable of speaking Turkish in a pinch, but the school lacks the institutional support needed to help students struggling with German fluency. While the story is largely light-hearted, towards the end, it becomes apparent that these students are largely being directed towards paths of lower-level academic prospects, largely due to their immigrant background and the inherent struggles of integration for which the government is not providing adequate support. In a particularly heart-wrenching scene, Ms. Idiskut tells the students that she will be leaving on maternity leave and that there is no teacher available to fill her position once she leaves. It isn’t until the conclusion of the film that the audience learns that a new teacher was found, but the negative effect of this stressful situation was readily apparent in the children and teacher.

There is something particularly upsetting about watching young and hopeful children struggle and then be prevented from graduating to an upper-level institution. If there is one criticism to be made of the documentary, it is that for foreign audiences who are maybe not aware of the educational system of Austria, it isn’t readily apparent what is going on when Ms. Idiskut makes her recommendations for which type of school the children should proceed to in the next year. In Austria, the majority of children are placed in one of two options for middle school and despite the fact that both schools offer the ability for students to progress to secondary schools, those who are placed in Mittelschule, rather than the more academically rigorous AHS-Unterstufe, are far more likely to attend polytechnical schools with far fewer Mittelschule students moving onto university-preparatory secondary schools. There is a strong socio-economic and cultural factor determining which school children will proceed to, with poorer students often ending up in Mittelschule. So, when Ms. Idiskut makes her recommendations, this often means that the students have their futures laid out before them in fifth grade, few will proceed onto the academic track and most will proceed towards a future of blue-collar work. All of this is decided for children when they are ten years old. For children who have only recently come to the country and struggle with the language, it is fairly obvious which future they will be directed towards, despite their potential capabilities or dreams.

With child-centered focus, FAVORITEN manages to make the audience truly feel connected with these young people, many of whom have already gone through considerable struggles and whose parents don’t necessarily know how to advocate for their education in a new culture and country. Ms. Idiskut herself, while a compassionate teacher, has the odds stacked against her with little institutional support and an ever-increasing workload. She is also a part of the system and must categorize the children, even if she knows that many of them could have different outcomes in a school with more funding and staff. The fact remains that in Austria, if you are a child from an immigrant background, the government does little to support your potential for success and there is nothing sadder than seeing children be defined by their backgrounds at such a young and vulnerable age. One can only hope that through raising awareness on the topic that there can be hope that in the future government policy will change to finally provide the support and guidance that these children really need.