Heist School

A group of high school students decide to steal the questions for the university entrance exam. The plan looks simple: a contact on the inside, one night, the right timing. But once money, fear and four or five people who do not trust each other are involved, it starts to crack under its own weight. The subject is not the theft but the exam. In Turkey a single day determining an entire future is what feeds the tension; even while committing a crime, the kids are following a logic that was imposed on them. The form joins the youth film to the heist template: brisk cutting, cram school corridors, night scenes. Ömer Faruk Sorak directs, having previously had a huge box office success with G.O.R.A., and the tone here is noticeably darker. When the film appeared, the cram school system was among the most argued-about subjects in Turkey, and the production looks straight at it. İsmail Hacıoğlu, Yağmur Atacan and Rüya Önal lead. Who it is for: viewers who like Turkish youth films and stories about the exam system. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a plausible heist; some steps of the plan go through too easily and the final section resolves fast.