She is small, but dangerous. Wherever Benni (Helena Zengel) ends up, she is expelled immediately. The wild 9-year-old girl has already become what child protection services call a “system crasher”, and she is certainly not looking to change her ways. Because Benni has one single goal: to be back at home with her mommy. But Bianca is scared of her own daughter while Mrs. Bafané from child protection services is trying her best to find a permanent placement for Benni. She enlists anger management trainer Micha (Albrecht Schuch) as Benni’s school escort; and suddenly there is a glimpse of hope. Will Micha be able to succeed where all others have failed?
While being acutely authentic, first-time director Nora Fingscheidt creates a psychological study in vibrant, visceral and emotional cinema that evokes unforgettable performances.
Winner of the Silver Berlin Bear for best film at Berlin international filmfestival 2019.
About the director:
Nora Fingscheidt was born in Braunschweig in 1983 and spent her childhood in Germany and Argentina. From 2003 onwards, she contributed to the development of the self-organized film school filmArche in Berlin. At the same time, she completed her training as an acting coach with Sigrid Andersson. Between 2008 and 2017 Nora studied feature film directing at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg. Her graduation film, the full-length documentary Without This World that tells the story of a conservative Mennonite colony in Argentina, won the Max Ophüls Prize and First Steps Award in 2017. Her fiction debut System Crasher has already won several awards for its script and became the winner of the Silver Berlin Bear for best film at Berlin international filmfestival 2019.
Original title: Systemsprenger
Genre: Drama
Director & screenwriter: Nora Fingscheidt
Starring: Helena Zengel, Albrecht Schuch, Gabriela Maria Schmeide, amongst others
Country & production year: Germany, 2019
Length: 118 min
Language: German, English subtitles
In cooperation with Goethe Institut Stockholm
