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The Edukators (German: Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei; literally "the fat years are over", or "your days of plenty are numbered") is a German-Austrian film made by the Austrian director Hans Weingartner and released in 2004. Nominated for the "Golden Palm Award" at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival,[1] it stars Daniel Brühl and Julia Jentsch.

The story revolves around three anti-capitalist activists living in Berlin city centre — Jule (Julia Jentsch), her boyfriend Peter (Stipe Erceg) and his best friend Jan (Daniel Brühl), along with a wealthy businessman named Hardenberg (Burghart Klaußner).

Jule is a waitress struggling to pay off the €100,000 debt she accumulated after crashing into Hardenberg's S-Class Mercedes-Benz on a motorway. After she is evicted for paying her rent late, she moves in with Peter and Jan, who are often out all night. When Peter takes a trip to Barcelona, Jan reveals that he and Peter spend their nights "educating" upper-class people by breaking into their houses, moving furniture around, and leaving notes with messages that say "Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei" (the days of plenty are over), or "Sie haben zu viel Geld" (you have too much money).

After learning this, Jule convinces the reluctant Jan to spontaneously break into Hardenberg's home in the affluent Berlin suburb of Zehlendorf, as he happens to be away on business. During the break-in, the two begin to kiss. Jan leaves Jule alone for a few minutes because he does not want to hurt his friendship with Peter. While wandering around, Jule accidentally sets off the house's floodlights after she goes outside and they leave in a hurry.

Peter returns the next day, but Jan and Jule do not tell him about their activities the night before. Jule soon realises that she is missing her mobile phone, so Jule and Jan go off later that night to look for it in the house. Just after she finds it, Hardenberg walks in the door and he begins to struggle with Jule after recognising her. Jan, who hears the struggle, comes downstairs and knocks Hardenberg out with a torch. Not knowing what to do, the pair call Peter who shows up to help them.

The three cannot decide what to do with Hardenberg, so they decide to take him to a remote and rarely-used cabin in the Tyrolean Austrian Alps, near Jenbach, overlooking Achensee, that belongs to Jule's uncle. While trying to decide how to deal with their hostage, they learn that Hardenberg was once a radical himself in the 1960s. He had been a leader of the Socialist German Student Union and was once good friends with Rudi Dutschke, before eventually marrying, getting a good job and abandoning his ideals.

As the story progresses, political ideologies, but more so the characters' relationships, become the deep issues. Peter and Jan have a temporary falling out over Jan's now blooming romance with Jule, while Hardenberg seems to regain some sense of his former self.



In the end, the three decide to take Hardenberg back to his house and let him go. As the three get ready to leave, Hardenberg hands Jule a letter, clearing all her debt and telling them that they need not worry about the police. The film ends with Peter, Jan and Jule sleeping in bed whilst a group of Spezialeinsatzkommando police amass outside the flat that Jule, Peter and Jan had been sharing, and knock on the door. Jule then wakes up when she hears a knock on the door. The police force their way into the flat which they find nearly completely empty. The film then cuts to Jule, who turns down a hotel maid offering to clean their room, presumably in a hotel in Barcelona. Back in the apartment in Berlin, the police find a note that reads "Manche Menschen ändern sich nie" (some people never change).

Another German version shows the three Edukators taking Hardenberg's boat into the Mediterranean to destroy the signal towers on an island that supply most of the television to Western Europe.