Director Hans Weingartner, who co-wrote “The Edukators” with Katharina Held, has given us a leisurely and engaging tour of the present state of youthful idealism in Germany. Whi le their contemporaries engage in conventional protest marches against militarism and the exploitation of 3rd world labor for Western consumerism, two friends have developed a more original, cutting edge approach to the problem.

Jan (Daniel Brühl) and Peter (Stipe Erceg) break into the homes of the rich, re-arrange their belongings, and leave behind a note crediting “the Edukators” with the invasion, hoping to teach their victims a lesson about the futility of wealth.

Peter’s girlfriend, Jule (Julia Jentsch), has a more personal reason for resenting rich people-in an automobile accident, she totaled the Mercedes of Hardenberg (Burghart Klaussner), and since she was uninsured, she must pay the man off the 100,000 Euros that his car was worth. Since this debt consumes all her income, she can’t pay her rent and gets evicted from her apartment. She moves in with Jan and Peter.

When she finds out what the two have been up to, she insists that the “Edukators” pay a visit to Hardenberg’s home. When the businessman returns suddenly in the middle of their raid, the three radicals abduct him and take him to a mountain cabin until they can figure out what to do.

Hardenberg turns out to have been a radical himself, 30 years ago. Now a millionaire, who votes conservative, he criticizes their methods while admitting that much of what they say about exploitation and complacency is true. They smoke pot together and play cards and seem to be reaching a friendly understanding. Are they?

“The Edukators” is too long, and a little of Jan’s political musings goes a long way, but I generally liked the film. The four actors who play the main-virtually the only-characters are very good-looking and likable. And as Europe and the United States turn into total plutocracies, in which only the rich count for anything, no one can say the film is irrelevant. Rated R.

COURTESY PHOTO