Also known as The Edukators. A German film about youthful political activism which skirts many of its issues without ever really grasping them. Beyond a anti-capitalist rhetoric it is difficult to work out the ideology of the leads, and their situationist stunts are a poor mans version of the Angry Brigade at best (without the bombs). The suggestion at the heart of the film that just because this has all been done before does not mean that political radicalism should die, is a persuasive one. As is the nice fact that the fat cat they eventually kidnap actually being an activist himself in the sixties. As a catalogue of disillusionment it works quite well, though takes a pretty long time to get there.
But back to that title. Is it called The Edukators, with a k deliberately, so we realise is a German film? Is it because it has a nice punch ring to it. Certainly the German title Die Fetten Jahre Sind Vorbei (literal translation above, gist translation, Your Days Of Plenty Are Over) is probably not punchy enough. But the film never refers to the leads as “The Edukators” and the characters themselves would probably be unhappy with the sobriquet. Infact having a set of garish posters across town with the phrase “YOUR DAYS OF PLENTY ARE NUMBERED” would please the ideologues of this film much more than “THE EDUKATORS”. The former actually achieves what its lead characters plan to do, destabilise the sense of comfort of the rich.