Like most of us, she has a sound body and a keen five senses.
She, like most of us, has people who want to love and trust.
Like most of us, she has something she likes and is curious about new things.
Her name is Benny, a 9-year-old girl with blonde hair and blue eyes who loves her little dragon toys.
But she didn't have a normal life, she was different from most of us, she had mania, and at the same time she longed for a world full of freedom and love.
She is uninhibited and a "system breaker".
System Breaker is a 2019 German film that was nominated for the Berlin Film Festival, the European Film Award, and the Best Film of the 21st Taipei Film Festival International New Directors Competition.
The film focuses on the life of benny Jr., a manic patient, who has experienced different ways of healing, changes in family relationships, different healers and teachers, but the only constant and tragic thing is that she still cannot be changed, she still cannot adapt to the rules of the current society.
When the nursing home and the mother had nothing to do, they decided to send her to Africa for rehabilitation after her birthday.
Unexpectedly, during the plane security check, Benny refused to put his beloved little dragon toy into the security machine, but instead broke away from all the security personnel and entourage, ran wildly, and finally jumped up in the air at a roof...
Mania is a mental illness with excessive or low emotional activity as the basic symptom, also known as "emotional disorder".
Because of their weak self-control, patients will make excessive emotional reactions to the things they come into contact with, for example, they will be angry because of small things that are not satisfactory, and violent incidents will occur.
The protagonist Benny's symptoms are exactly like this, such as being so resistant to her mother's partner that she is locked up in a kitchen, using a heavy object against her to wait for the relevant personnel to save the field; at the skating rink because of a popsicle competition with another child, she presses the other party on the ice rink and bleeds; and the instructor Michelle hits the car window with her head after refusing her request, etc...
Such a child, in terms of universal values, is a "problem child."
Speaking of Germany, it may be easy to associate with words such as rationality and rigor, and its social structure is generally relatively advanced and complete, in the face of such a "problem child", in fact, in this meticulous system, there are institutions at different levels to shelter and educate her, and in each institution there are experienced, methodological and personality of different educators.
However, this sound system ultimately failed to complete the healing and control of Benny.
Overturning one of the proudest features reveals its holes and weaknesses – it's a reflective film.
In fact, Benny's wish is simple — he wants to see his mother and go home to live a normal life.
From the starting point of all her behavior, she expects companionship, she longs to be loved.
She had been a calm self: when the forest was healed, she wanted to fall asleep in the arms of the teacher Michelle; at Michelle's house, she liked to play with Michelle's young son, and even picked up the baby on the morning when the Michelles were not awake, soaked him milk powder, and coaxed him to be happy.
But all this ends harshly because of rules or fear.
The former is because Michelle is a male teacher, and it is illegal to hold the girl Benny to sleep, and the latter because Benny has just recently committed violence against the younger girl while skating, and she herself is extremely resistant to returning the child to Michelle's woman, the risk factor rises, and the atmosphere is scorched.
In this way, her only chance was to be disturbed again and again by instability and opposition.
She has violent tendencies, so everyone is afraid of her, and she seems to be very strong; she is a 9-year-old little girl, who needs compassion and love, and is the weak side.
This contradictory dual identity is suppressed by Benny, who is a loophole in the system, but also because the soul yearning for freedom and fierceness seems to be extremely destructive to the system.
She is one of the few who attracts the attention of the system, but she is also the hero and victim of breaking the system.
There is no absolute opposite in the whole film, and there is no so-called "Virgin".
In fact, the plot for most of the nodes and details of the arrangement, are as far as possible to reflect the kindness and tolerance, the main characters are almost benevolent, but the final direction and result is still a failure.
The reason for this seems to be a complex and cumbersome and difficult to answer question, and perhaps different people will have different analysis and solutions, but they cannot escape a sense of helplessness and powerlessness that has been presented by the film.
What the characters have in common is that both mothers and teachers belong to the "system," that is, to the system.
The mother may be at the bottom of the system, her married life is not ideal, her work status is precarious, and she has two children to raise besides Benny.
At first, she didn't want to abandon any of the children, but Benny had repeated seizures, and she was already difficult to deal with and endure, and she found that the other two children had a tendency to do so after spending a long time with Benny, and she had to stop and make a choice.
The nature of the choice here seems to be reminiscent of the "trolley problem", where the mother's abilities are limited, and she has been blamed and persuaded but still helpless.
Mr. and Mrs. Michelle, Teacher Bafane, doctors and other nursing homes belong to the system of professionals in this area.
Michelle is even more special, he actually has a partially anti-system color, just as he proposed a one-on-one outdoor forest special healing for Benny at the beginning, which is the opposite of traditional sanatorium education.
He had demolished the building with her, and had refuted the voices of defiance, and he wanted to restore her in a more gentle and appropriate way for Benny, and his essential purpose was to hope that Benny would adapt to the conventional order but still maintain his personality, which, like himself, was rebellious but not dangerous, because this order preserved the interests and normal life of the majority of the majority in the system, and he was one of them.
But Benny is immutable. He tries to see life through Benny's perspective while always basing it on another self's perception, which makes his goodwill equally thoroughly understood and accepted.
Benny's "rehabilitation" process is actually an assimilation, security, and belonging to the scope of order, and if it cannot be changed, it faces being controlled or even going to the end of the road.
This is not to criticize or condemn the rules, because the rules have become rules and regulations are actually a staged achievement, a realistic optimal solution.
In fact, it is more of a reflection and question: how can we better deal with these minorities? Should the behavior of a system breaker really be understood? Are their presence and demeanor in line with a more advanced vision in some way?
When it comes to order and freedom, we can actually think of many historical events or films with similar themes.
"Flying Over the Madhouse" and "The Shawshank Redemption" first appeared in my mind.
But now that I think about it, it seems that System Breaker is more bold and direct: the lunatic asylum and the prison are actually a kind of specialized small society, or call it a "microcosm" of society.
And the protagonist in "System Breaker" is in a daily world that we are not familiar with.
In addition to order and freedom, individuality and commonality, the film also involves many other fields related: family, education, psychology, etc.
The art style design of the film is also in line with the identity and personality of the protagonist, and the highly saturated colors symbolize the innocence of the beautiful nature.
Benny's coat is a restless and vivid pink, pink is red and white in color composition, so it has both the danger, aggression, irritation and the simplicity and purity of white, which is consistent with the contradictory existence of the protagonist.
The light blue eyes are filled with anticipation, confusion, confusion and a faint sadness, which is a tragic story, but a subtle display.
A meaningful film may not provide a solution to a problem, but it may reflect one or a series of issues worth thinking about.
"System Breaker" is keen, believing that viewers with different identities can find a positioning and get a consideration in the viewing process.
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This article is original by Luo Yushu Film, welcome to pay attention to ~