System Crasher. (15.)
Directed by Nora Fingscheidt
Starring Helena Zengel, Albrecht Schuch, Gabriela Maria Schmeide, Lisa Hagmeister, Melanie Straub and Victoria Trauttmansdorff. 125 mins.
It's never really clarified exactly what condition 9-year-old Benni (Zengel) has in this German drama, but at a rough guess I'd say, all of them. She's hyperactively violent, sweary, spitty, demanding and destructive. Part or all of this behaviour is rooted in childhood trauma, the details of which aren't revealed. She can't go five minutes without demolishing whatever situation she's in or opportunity she has been given. So she spends her life being moved from one care facility to another.
Just watching a two-hour film about her is exhausting. Despite the title, the system is doing the best it can to try and look after her. School escort Micha (Schuch) and her caseworker Frau Bafane (Schmeide) seem to be going beyond the call of duty to try help her, hooked in by the moments when she reveals her vulnerability, her desperate need to find a love to replace that of the mother that can't deal with her. The film adopts a similar kind of narrative peek-a-boo, following intense bursts of rage and destruction, with Ah, but-she's-just-a-little-kid moments. The film does an impressive job of putting you through the emotional wringer, without perhaps giving any clear purpose as to what is gained from this.
Directed by Nora Fingscheidt
Starring Helena Zengel, Albrecht Schuch, Gabriela Maria Schmeide, Lisa Hagmeister, Melanie Straub and Victoria Trauttmansdorff. 125 mins.
It's never really clarified exactly what condition 9-year-old Benni (Zengel) has in this German drama, but at a rough guess I'd say, all of them. She's hyperactively violent, sweary, spitty, demanding and destructive. Part or all of this behaviour is rooted in childhood trauma, the details of which aren't revealed. She can't go five minutes without demolishing whatever situation she's in or opportunity she has been given. So she spends her life being moved from one care facility to another.
Just watching a two-hour film about her is exhausting. Despite the title, the system is doing the best it can to try and look after her. School escort Micha (Schuch) and her caseworker Frau Bafane (Schmeide) seem to be going beyond the call of duty to try help her, hooked in by the moments when she reveals her vulnerability, her desperate need to find a love to replace that of the mother that can't deal with her. The film adopts a similar kind of narrative peek-a-boo, following intense bursts of rage and destruction, with Ah, but-she's-just-a-little-kid moments. The film does an impressive job of putting you through the emotional wringer, without perhaps giving any clear purpose as to what is gained from this.
