Benni

System Crasher is an unforgiving and brutal examination of 9-year-old girl Benni, whose anger issues and past trauma hinder her from finding permanent care.

System Crasher is unforgiving because of its realism. There's no glimmer of hope. It's simply the life of a child who cannot be saved by her society. From desperate and annoyed care takers to a clueless system which fails Benni, she cannot cope with her trauma and resorts to violence and anger. Helena Zengel embodies this anger almost perfectly and manages to walk the thin line between authenticity and sympathy. You can't help but feel for her, even though she continuously screams at everyone. These screams symbolise her inner struggle and the deeply rooted pain she suffers from being abused and abanoned. With close to two hours it's a tough movie that feels longer than it is, but it's worth it and so important.

This movie was really impressive, especially considering that it is the director's first feature film. Helena Zengel, who plays Benni, is such an excellent actress and she can go very far as an actress if she continue in that way. Can't wait what she is doing next.

If this film is hard to stomach, or sit through, or you had to close your eyes and hold your ears through tough parts.....then this film succeeded in its main task of showcasing very real and difficult to treat psychiatric conditions. It can be a little rough to watch at times but also heart warming too so it won't be a total downer the entire time. If you find this film a worthy watch then check out 'Mommy' 2014 to see how this progresses. I rated this an 8, for good, but you'll have to see for yourself to be a fair judge.

I saw the world premiere of this movie at the 69. Berlinale and I was really surprised about it. I'm so happy to see, that some rare German Directors can create much better stuff than the typical Till Schweiger comedy movies. This movie is totally different, very intensiv and emotional. I wished we will get more of this in the future.

Directress Nora Fingscheidt had previously only worked on documentaries and it shows - in a wonderful way. Best described as hyper-realistic cinema, the movie is a "slice of life" experience spanning only a few weeks of the trying life of 9-year-old girl Benni and everyone involved in it.

It is never made quite clear (at least not comprehensively) what exactly it is Benni is suffering from, but that's not essential to a non-professional audience anyway. To a layman, it appears to be a form of mental instability that requires intensive professional care and medical assistance. However, neither seems to be sufficient treatment as Benni's mood heavily fluctuates between moments of relative calmness and aggressive hypomania all throughout the movie. As a consequence, she's constantly battling social isolation and caught in between her most human need for affectionateness and her conditions disposition of pushing everyone away from her. The movie also brilliantly displays, in what I consider maybe its strongest feat, the emotional and professional hardships everyone surrounding her experiences as a result. Even today, there's very little understanding or appreciation for social work in our society, that is, labor that does not immediately generate monetary value. The movie does its part in educating the viewer, not in a condescending way but entirely through imagery. Its multifaceted approach encompasses any and all points of view, individual motivations and emotions, the eventual judgement however is left entirely up to the audience.

The acting is undoubtably meriting all the praise directed its way and then some. Flawless across the board. It wouldn't work otherwise. Helena Zengel does a magnificent job at playing Benni, surely someone to watch for the future.

Without elaborating too much, there's one peculiar cinematographic detail I'd like to mention that stood out to me: The color palette is heavy on pink, a traditionally "girly" color, that is used in most innovative ways that can be best understood if you're familiar with Julian Schnabel's At Eternity's Gate (2018). Like Schnabel, Fingscheidt uses color to further emphasize the gravitas of certain emotional situations. As opposed to "seeing red", the young girl literally sees pink in scenes of extreme anger and distress and we, as the viewer, are confronted with a bold pink overlay blocking out everything else. One cannot help but notice the (most certainly intended) irony in using a color such as pink that is associated with cuteness and innocence and turn it into what later on in the movie has conditioned the audience to expect rage fits of the worst kind.

That is not to say that the movie represents a particularly feminine point of view. The issue is, at its core, a gender neutral one.

In short, a hearty recommendation to any serious moviegoer.