A moralistic examination of the dynamics of a German school, serving as a microcosm of modern-day Germany where native Germans exist anxiously alongside immigrants, many of them Turkish and Muslim, “The Teachers’ Lounge” is not quite as square as its aspect ratio or this description.

But it can take an effort. Directed and co-written by award-winning German-Turkish filmmaker Ilker Catak, the film centers upon somewhat estranged new teacher Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch, “The Crown”). Carla teaches math and PE. She opens her class by leading her young students in a group scream. She speaks German, English and Polish, although she chooses not to speak the latter publicly with a fellow teacher of Polish descent. Carla is self-conscious about fitting in.

The school has experienced several unsolved thefts and has taken morally dubious measures to stop them. Suspicion falls upon a boy of Turkish descent. In a display of heavy-handed behavior by the school, the boy’s wallet is searched, and he has a large amount of cash inside. After being called to the school, his understandably upset parents, assuming, perhaps rightfully, they are the victims of racial prejudice, explain persuasively that he was given the cash to buy a computer game.

Later, Carla finds cash missing from her own purse in the teachers’ lounge. She arranges a trap using her laptop and discovers that the culprit is a member of the staff with a son at the school. What follows will involve an accusation of illegal spying, a campaign by the woman’s son to tarnish Carla’s reputation and an example of how people are sometimes too eager to find others at fault.

We are used to films about inspiring teachers, such as “To Sir with Love” (1967) with a revelatory Sidney Poitier, “Dead Poets Society” (1989), “Stand and Deliver” (1988), “School of Rock” (2003), the original “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” (1939) and last year’s sadly underappreciated “Radical” with Eugenio Derbez. “The Teachers’ Lounge” is more like “Rashomon” than it is like those films. It is an examination of a search for an elusive, perhaps even destructive truth and of the tensions and prejudices bubbling just beneath the surface of a foundational German institution, in this case the one in charge of the education of the country’s children.

Benesch, who played the sister of Prince Philip, Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, in “The Crown,” is on a Joan of Arc-like crusade here. We’re never really sure what drives the somewhat prim Carla. She is certainly under the mistaken impression that anyone is going to thank her for taking matters into her own hands and bringing light to the darkness. There may only be more darkness. We fear that like Joan, Carla may face a self-consuming fire in the end. Tensions run high among teachers and students and threaten to turn violent. In a memorable scene, Carla has an anxiety attack, rushes to the loo and finds a plastic bag to breathe into. Paging Mr. Chips.

(“The Teachers’ Lounge” contains mature themes and profanity)

Rated PG-13. In German, Polish and Turkish with subtitles. At the Landmark Kendall Square.

Grade: B+