Ellbogen

No pun intended - in society you are told you have use your elbows to get ahead ... to become something in the world out there. It is meant more lmetaphorically but sometimes it can get literally as well ... the movie has one of those examples.

But let me backtrack and admit I have not read the book this is based on. But it seems the director has worked quite closely with the writer of the book. Also casting not just an unknown, but someone who never learned the craft of acting ... proved to be a stroke of genius ... maybe she got lucky, maybe the 6 months of prep also helped ... maybe it is a lot of things. But in the end you do get a very fine movie.

That said, you probably will not be too fond of the main character ... and you are not supposed to be. Calling her flawed would be an understatement. But the performance is so good, so subtle at times ... you may at least feel for her ... and to a degree maybe still root for her ... until she does something horrible again ... but she is as much a victim to her circumstances as she is the perpetrator ... this packs quite a lot of things and maybe certain things will fall under the radar (political themes, either in Germany or in Turkey, considering the situation there) ... in the end it is a personal journey we are going with ... and the main character clearly looks to us for a reason ... no pun intended. What that reason or reasons are? Well for you to decipher and find out I would say.

Not an easy movie for many reasons - but feels as real as movies can get. Be it dialog or how the story evolves ... the journey may have some steps that we "skip" ... but we as viewers (or readers I assume) have to fill out for ourselves.