User reviews

I enjoyed watching this film. Based on a true story, it faithfully reproduces the atmosphere of the post-war period, a few years before the building of the Berlin Wall. The direction is sober, apart from the tear-jerking sequence with Jonas Dassler crying in a church. Good acting and plot twists kept my attention until the end. I was moved by the situation of these young people. I also appreciated the values they share, such as solidarity and fraternity. With all they have to go through, it's clear that living at that time in East Germany was not a bed of roses.

This film is even handed and explores why people take the positions they do. the themes are universal - the older generation carry the baggage of WWII, the legacy of fascism while the younger generation of high school students are idealistic and, to some extent, naive and easily manipulated. We understand why the East German government finds it imperative to stamp out 'counter revolutionary' activity. The characters are well rounded, not just evil cardboard cut outs. School officials are caught up in and compromised by a political system. The irony is by working together and maintaining solidarity the school students show precisely the qualities the 'socialist' regime of the GDR was supposed to be all about. The intrusive incidental music was the only thing which grated for me, and at times the movie lapsed in to melodrama but on the whole it was entertaining and thought provoking with a lavish attention to period detail.

It is a true story, that is why it is so touching for us Hungarians to watch. To see how the world was informed about our revolution, and how it affected the lives of other peoples in the Eastern Bloc.

In 1956, in Hungary, we experienced being left alone. Now we learned from this movie that someone was with us. Thank you for your quiet stand, which was very loud compared to what was possible in the GDR at the time. And thanks to the filmmakers for telling it us.

How much does this matter to Hungary? - someone asks in the movie. Here is the answer: a lot.

It is a good movie about basic moral issues and solidarity.

What a beautiful and impressive movie about the courageous boys and girls of a school in East Berlin in 1956

Realistic, heart warming story about a fight against oppression

This is a nice and well done movie about a class that defied their teachers but more importantly, even if they didn't know it the tyranny of their goverment. It is more than decent and even if you may not always feel entirely convinced by the acting (I think it's way above average here and very good for a german cinema release to say the least), the movie has a (real life) story to tell.

You may not have been aware of this, and to be truthful neither were the pupils in this. Some things feel forced and some incidents may feel a bit over dramatized, but they work in the story that unfolds. Also the characters are really nicely drawn. There are quite a few emotional moments and quite a few were you may feel helpless too ... it really is about being involved, if you let the movie do that to you, you are in for an experience

So the movie basically is about young Germans Far left that are against communism ..... lol that's messed up !

By great good fortune, I was able to watch this on Kanopy, a service of some public library systems. I had never heard of it before. I watched it tonight, 18 October 2019, frequently with tears in my eyes seeing how totalitarianism destroys families and individuals. "The Silent Revolution" -- or in a better translation from the German, "The Silent Classroom" -- needs to be seen by everybody, especially today's ignorant and/or misinformed young people who chant, usually mindlessly, "socialism" and "socialism" and "socialism." They're being misled by demagogic cries of "free, free, free," but the people, including the young people, will not be free. They will be, as were the young people of the Communist Bloc nations, herded into obedient groups, not allowed to question, not allowed to keep their own property or, ultimately, their own lives. Reading the other reviews, I am horrified and disgusted at the number of apparent communists or communist sympathizers who thumbed down the favorable reviews, though I have seen exactly that reaction to another true-life film about communist oppression, "Eleni." It's rare enough to see a motion picture describing the truth about the horrors and terrors of life under communist oppression, so I am very grateful to the producers of "The Silent Revolution," and grateful to Kanopy for letting me see it.

Just watch it, it's well developed, may have a slow paced environment but totally worth.

While most films regarding this period focus on spies, politicians, military, this one gives us a hindsight about ordinary people.

A little background info would be useful. The characters live in a city called Stalinstadt, which is on the Polish border, far from Berlin and the West German border, so in short a hard place if you want to escape. For a German public, it is obvious, but for an international audience, it lacks a litte introduction.

The best part of those German movies and series produced at Babelsberg studios (Ghost Writer, Silence, Babylon Berlin) is the aesthetics and design. The clothes, furniture, cars, every object seems to be carefully researched. I find the visual appeal sometimes better than the story itself.

About the plot, it is alright. I was surprised to see how free were East Germans before the building of the wall, since the secret police was in its early stages yet.

The film illustrates once again the fact that totalitarian power is eager to eliminate any incipient resistance and disagreement because it fears collective resistance by the majority. When that day comes, totalitarian power is bound to be quickly overthrown.

This movie proposes too little cinematography, character depth, and a weak storyline. It is hard to like and sympathize with the characters. Most of the movie doesn't feel like watching a movie or being involved in something noticeable.

This is an excellent movie about life on the wrong side of the Iron curtain. It depicts the terror and oppression by the ruling communist party on anyone not conforming to its political line. Literally everyone. The plot is scarily familiar to anyone born in the the former Eastern bloc before 1980.

Das Schweigende Klassenzimmer is based on the real-life events of a class in East Germany in 1956 that decided to dedicate two minutes of silence as an act of support to the Hungarian uprising. This causes a massive reaction and the situation soon gets out of control.

It is a thought-provoking and eye-opening movie, as it brings to light a rather unknown or forgotten part of history, though it could have pushed even more towards that direction. Instead, it tries to take a more entertaining approach by simplyfying the socio-political commentary and balancing it with the dramatic elements. Also, the villains are one-dimensional and never get any proper development.