On her wild quest for love, 9-year-old Benni's untamed energy drives everyone around her to despair.
Benni (Helena Zengel) is a wild nine-year-old girl who has suffered a trauma that causes panic attacks and regularly results in violent assaults on herself and others. Since her single mother, who has to take care of her two younger siblings, is unable to cope with her, the government’s childcare services are in charge of her and try to find a favourable environment for her.
After a series of short films and documentaries 'Without This World', the talented German filmmaker Nora Fingscheidt debuted last year with the feature films '' System Breaker '' and delighted both the public and the critics. Although many, far more experienced filmmakers would choose to show the life of a teenage girl to show such difficult, emotionally exhausting topics without much thought, Nora decided on a more complex approach. Her heroine is only 9 years old and puberty has not even reached her yet, and she is already on the verge of emotional breakdown. Of course, in order for such a bold approach to resonate even more strongly, the director needed an extraordinary energy and talent, and she found it in the fascinating Helena Zengel. Her performance is perfectly nuanced, which is reflected through an extremely demanding cocktail of emotions in which feelings of frustration, anger, despair, but also kindness are constantly mixed.
Of the series of awards that the film has collected so far, it is worth mentioning 'Silver Bear' at last year's Berlinale, the award for best music at the 'European Film Awards' and the award for best film at last year's 'Vukovar Film Festival'.
