Navid is 15 and has big goals. He wants to earn 10 or 15 million. So that he is free. School, work, pension, simple curriculum vitae, "and then you just die, I just do not want that". He does not believe that money alone makes him happy. "But I'll put it this way: I prefer sitting in the Ferrari howling on my bike." For that he wants to study fund management, "or something like that".
The problem: Navid may fail already at the Hauptschulabschluss. He goes to a so-called focal point school in Hanover. The rest school of the capital of Lower Saxony, says teacher Daniela Hofmann in the NDR documentary "Schoolyard of Hope": "We take on the students who really do not want to have another school."
The three-part documentary accompanies the students of class 9b of the Peter Ustinov High School in their last year of school - the most important year: "We have to get the children to a degree, then they have a perspective," says Headmaster Karin Haller. Education is the only way out of poverty or precarious conditions.
"If I'm honest, it will be difficult"
Whether Navid seizes the opportunity remains open over the three half-hour episodes until the end. Although he describes high school graduation as the best scenario in vocational guidance. "But if I'm honest, it will be hard." Even his class teacher Nina Dittrich says: "I think he would have to motivate a little more and show a little more willingness."
The documentary shows how committed the teachers of the school are trying to pave the way for their students: even the eighth-graders get antigovernment training so that they do not block their future at the beginning of their criminal responsibility. The guidance counselor has his own room on the ground floor. In the special project Personality Development and in activities such as the Christmas Song Contest, students learn more self-confidence.
Nobody at home knows that he has a test
Class teacher Dittrich meticulously goes through with the young people, what they have to bring everything to the math exam: "What do you need? Pen, more precisely, pen and pencil ..." Headmaster Haller stands in the morning personally in the foyer and drums in the classroom. "When class starts and there are only three students, that's depressing," she says to Benjamin Arcioli's writing team, Katrin Hafemann, Stefanie Gromes and Julian Amershi.
However, patience and faith in her students are just as much a part of them as are the teachers portrayed. But against the circumstances they do not always arrive.
There is, for example, the 17-year-old Binh-An, who does not write the German final exam. "Sleepy," he says. The TV crew asks why nobody woke him up. Nobody at home knew that he had a test. "I did not tell them that."
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Documentary about Hauptschule in Hannover: Schoolyard of HopeOr the 16-year-old Leidis, who describes her dream man in a group work. The most important requirement: He should not be violent.
In key scenes such as these lies the strength of the documentation: it does not show the students, does not show the difficult circumstances they come from. This is revealed to viewers only from the subtext.
More than 90 percent of students have a migrant background, as many refer social benefits, says co-author Arcioli DER SPIEGEL. "The students carry a lot on their shoulders." But in the documentary, the film crew does not mention that in a word. There is no commentary, no classification of events.
One place, one conflict, many different perspectives
The idea of the new transmission format: one place, one conflict, many different perspectives. Teachers and social workers speak as well as the mother of Navid or the anti-violence trainer. The documentary wants to meet these people on an equal footing: "Even if you do not share their perspective, we want to achieve that you at least understand them," says documentary filmmaker Arcioli.
At the same time, the team tries in places to fill the documentary with tension - even if it does not exist. About two in a row for the class trip, when two students misbehave. This is as boring as predictable. But it also shows: Here, at the focal point school, it is like all other schools also: on school trips students exceed the rules.
Puberty just.
The problem is that at this age, students have to graduate from high school, says teacher Dittrich. The filming had shown him, "how damn privileged I grew up," says documentary filmmaker Arcioli: the family home, the school form, the money. And: In the 9th grade at the Gymnasium it does not matter if you have a trailer. Not at the secondary school.
Broadcast dates of the three episodes in the NDR: On November 13, 20 and 27 at 23:50 each. All episodes are already available in the media library.