Die Berührte

The English title of Die Berührte is taken from graffiti on an abandoned building next to the Berlin Wall, and the Wall as concrete and metaphorical divide appears repeatedly throughout the film. Berlin appears cold, gray. Schizophrenic Veronika walks the city streets alone, looking for Christ, looking for human contact, for connection.

In their aseptic home her wealthy parents listen to a radio which endlessly drones stock prices, while on the street, the S-Bahn, in cafés Veronika experiences a sensual world freighted with hidden meanings. Home is a prison from which she seeks release through suicide. She is hospitalized, drugged, and released. In coitus she finds brief connection but neither the union she seeks with the infinite nor more than a temporary respite from loneliness.

Veronika attempts marriage with penniless Ghanaian Demba, an exotic symbol of the libertine south who she brings home to her parents' disgust, but Demba shows her no commitment, no loyalty, and in fact provides the basis for her forcible rehospitalization.

Here, as in several previous films, Helma Sanders-Brahms' protagonist is a strong woman suffering, nearly crushed, by the patriarchal forces of western industrial society. While at the film's open the viewer is told Veronika's real-life counterpart was almost cured, (at least, the film says, according to the doctors), there is no such cure shown within the movie. In the film's abrupt end rather, we see Veronika's search for Christ in a dramatic new light.

The film is a sort of patchwork of experiences endured by a young schizophrenic woman. It is grim and uncompromising in every way. In its subject matter and overall bleakly dark feel, the film reminded me a good bit of Polanski's Repulsion.

While this film doesn't seem totally cohesive in every way, it doesn't really seem to matter in the end, because we are essentially experiencing the chaotic and harsh life of a mentally ill person who is for the most part, alone among the wolves. However the film is very refreshing in its maturity. It doesn't seem to overly paint any character as 'bad' nor 'good', but just as humans in a very confusing human world. The fact that the people who take advantage of the young woman, and her wealthy parents who mostly ignore her, are not just pointed at with all the blame is admirable. It's more realistic in its vision of a world that has a hard time understanding and dealing with a mentally ill person; And bravo for that, because for the most part, that is very much the truth.

The film is challenging to watch, and certainly isn't what you'd call great entertainment. However it's hard to deny that in it's own right, this is a very worthy artistic endeavour, and in the end, this is a very effective film in what it sets out to do. If you want to know what it's like to be a schizophrenic person living in this world, you probably can't do much better than watching this flick.

In many ways, not a good film necessarily, but a very worthy and effective one nonetheless. I did find myself actually enjoying it, because as a film, it really is more challenging and authentic, rather than naively overbearing and stereotypical. Most films with this type of subject matter tend to be of the latter sort. You won't find that kind of ignorance or laziness here. This film is a punch to gut, and a serious tug at the heart. Jim Morrison once asked, "How many of you people really know you're alive?". After watching this film, you'll know.

7/10.

The daughter of rich and conservative parents (Elizabeth Stepanek) roams snowy Berlin in the search for men, in whom she sees the reembodiment of God or Christ. Poor angel is repeatedly placed in a psychiatric clinic, where she is treated with drugs. Based on a series of letters written by a schizophrenic woman named Rita G., "No Mercy No Future" is a cold and incredibly depressing drama about loneliness and harsh, merciless love. The film shows multiple, explicit scenes of sex and suicidal bloodletting that will no doubt upset some viewers. One erotic scene drenched in vaginal gore is touching and sickening at the same time. Our heroine strips naked and lies in the snow beside an army firing range; arterial blood from her slashed wrists is flowing freely, her various suicide attempts are like the spiritual journey to God and our savior Jesus Christ. Anorexia, psychosis, joyless sex, graphic abortion and self-mutilation are all mixed in this experimental doco-drama that pulls no punches in its utter coldness and dirt. An emotionally-exhausting experience.

"Blackness, stuffing, wood and nails - The stench in your coffin sums up your whole life" - Funeralium, "Nearly the End"

This is an interesting and often harrowing film about the travails of a female mental patient. Although she is from a comfortable, wealthy family, "Veronika" (Elisabeth Stepanek) suffers from religious delusions and terrifying hallucinations and finds herself constantly taken advantage of by various men. The genesis of the movie is supposedly a letter the real-life character wrote to the director, asking him "to tell her story". This is not some nice, tidy TV movie on the subject of mental illness though. It does not offer any easy resolutions (as the chilling English-language title suggests). The hallucinatory imagery is strong, and the heroine's various suicide attempts and institutionalizations are played for maximum effect. There are also several strong sex scenes like when she has a sexual encounter with a dim-witted Ghananian immigrant she just met after having a recent abortion and she starts bleeding all over the place, which neither partner really reacts to. Anyway, don't ever expect to ever see this one on the Lifetime Channel!

The one thing that did kind of annoy me is that I wasn't sure at times if the character was supposed to be a paranoid schizophrenic or a crazed nymphomaniac. This often reminded of the 70's Christine Lindberg exploitation film "Anite, Swedish Nymph" (which I suspect was later an inspiration for Lars Von Trier's "Nymphomaniac"). It's not surprising a pretty female schizophrenic would get taken advantage of sexually, but it's sometimes a bit much here. It's not hard to believe someone suffering from religious delusions might think a paraplegic she meets is Jesus Christ,for instance, but would she then turn around and give him a bj on an elevator five minutes later? (Who does THAT after meeting "Jesus"?) Her promiscuity is not treated in an exploitative manner by any means, and the actress Stepanek gives a very brave performance, spending much of the movie spiritually, emotionally, or physically naked, but they do perhaps play up the lurid sex angle too much for a serious movie.

Still, overall, this is an effective movie with strong imagery and powerful performances. I would recommend it.

"No Mercy No Future" is based on the letters of schizophrenic woman Rita G.The main character Veronika Christoph is suffering from this type of mental illness.She wanders the streets of gray and bleak Berlin looking for Jesus Christ and has sex with desperately lonely and poor men.Veronika joins a religious commune,but she only finds hypocrisy there.Her various suicide and self-cutting attempts are shown quite graphically.When she delves into depression Veronika wants to die.The director said that she wanted to film madness from within,the madness of a female schizophrenic,the madness of the ice-cold society which she wants to warm with her small body.Overall,the film is bleak and depressing with its scenes of menstrual sex and hen butchery.7 out of 10.