The Berlin Film Festival is one of the three major European film festivals that emphasizes gender equality the most. In 2017 and 2018, the highest honor Golden Bear was awarded to female directors for two consecutive years ("Dream Deer Love" and "Don't Touch Me") , and last year continued to play the spirit of encouraging female directors. In the competition unit, there were six female directors shortlisted, and the number was the top of the three major film festivals in Europe! These six works have different themes, including biographies, realistic themes, grand historical narratives, and personal author sketches. The forms are diverse and eclectic, but they basically focus on women. Except for "Mr. Jones", which is the only one exception. And the Silver Bear Award for Best Director was won by German female director Angela Shanalek for "I'm Away from Home, But...", which is also well deserved.
Among the six female director works shortlisted for the competition, one directorial debut, "System Destroyer", has attracted a lot of attention. The film won the Afrey Bauer Silver Bear Award, proving that the German female director Nora Fingscheidt (Nora Fingscheidt) can not be underestimated. As the director's debut, every aspect of the film has been done very well, and the actress's amazing explosive performance is the most eye-catching. In my opinion, her performance is on a par with the Berlin actress' "Long Time". The innocence and rage, vulnerability and independence of a troubled child less than 10 years old are displayed in layers, especially the manic performance when his emotions are out of control is staggering.
Secondly, the script introduces the theme of the film through the changing emotions and personalities of this central character: the influence of parents and the thorny problems that the children's social welfare system brings to the growth of young children. It is obvious that this girl has such a restless and irritable emotional problem due to the lack of parental care and sense of security. The German social welfare system for children is like an endless loop that cannot solve the problem. The little girl can only be pushed aside by the hospital and the correctional institution, and finally even pushed abroad. The day-to-day details about the correctional facility are observed very realistically and meticulously, and the role of the escort as a temporary father is also accurately portrayed.
The relationship between the little girl and her companions is like an interesting inversion of a common play type, and viewers who have watched "This Killer Is Not Too Cold" and "You've Never Been Here" believe they will feel the same. Usually it is the little loli who helps the adult man get out of the predicament and complete the spiritual redemption, but in this story not only the relationship between the two is set upside down, but also in the end, the accompanying readers did not help the loli get rid of the emotional predicament and return to normal. The male characters in the film (accompanying readers, mother's boyfriend) have more or less negative connotations of selfishness or shirk responsibility. This female observation perspective adds another layer of interpretation possibilities beyond the social and family significance of the film.
In contrast, the film is not perfect is the sense of rhythm. The first half hour had a lot of impact, repeatedly portraying the girl's emotional out-of-control performance, but after the accomplices intervened, the narrative became more and more like an American drama plot that played cards according to routines, although the second section of the girl was in the natural environment. I was very impressed with the healing process. The most criticized is the procrastination of the ending. Like the little girl in the play, the screenwriter cannot arrange a clean ending for his story, and can only end it with an open ending.
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