System Crasher – System Sprinkler (2019)

Directed by: Nora Fingscheidt | 121 minutes | drama | Actors: Helena Zengel, Albrecht Schuch, Gabriela Maria Schmeide, Lisa Hagmeister, Melanie Straub, Victoria Trauttmansdorff, Maryam Zaree, Tedros Teclebrhan, Matthias Brenner, Louis von Klipstein, Barbara Philipp, Amelle Schwerk

Her real name is Bernadette, but she hates that name. The nine-year-old main character in the raw German drama ‘System Crasher’ (‘Systemsprenger’) prefers to be called Benni. That name also fits better with this derailed child, who goes from foster family to institution to foster family and back to institution again. And very occasionally she goes to her own chaotic family. White trash, but in German.

With ‘System Crasher’ director Nora Fingscheidt ventures into well-known territory. With all the associated risks. Movies about unruly children often present the child as a rough shell with a white core. And if it doesn’t have that white spirit yet, it will get it soon enough, with the help of just that one adult who completely understands the child.

(Almost) none of this in ‘System Crasher’. There are adults who understand Benni, but they can’t do much with it. Benni is a badly damaged child who you suspect is also not quite right with the wiring. She screams, fights, acts antisocial, selfish and completely irresponsible. Benni’s hysteria is so irritating that you would gladly give her a one-way ticket to Siberia, just to get rid of it.

That honest and uncompromising approach is the great strength of this film. You understand the dilemmas of the social workers, who should not attach themselves to a child who has an enormous need for attachment. You understand that even those emergency workers sometimes don’t know anymore and then flatten Benni again with sedatives. And in the end you also have to deal with Benni, especially if you only really feel her pain after a goosebumps scene (something with an echo in a forest).

The very young Helena Zengel is astonishingly good in the role of Benni. Anger, fear, hysteria, everything seems authentic with the actress. The aid workers are also portrayed credibly, with all the sadness, hope and despair that Benni unleashes in them.

The only thing the movie doesn’t do well is amplify hysterical scenes with music that’s just as hysterical. At those moments, the already intense film goes over the top. Apart from that, ‘System Crasher’ is an art house film that you rarely see these days: uncompromising, harrowing and sometimes unpleasant to watch. As a viewer you are also confronted with yourself. Did you really give that kid a one-way ticket to Siberia? Oh dear.