by Annette Basile
Worth: $12.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Elise Krieps, Rainer Bock, Imogen Kogge, Torben Liebrecht, Katharina Schüttler
Intro:
Despite the utterly amazing performance from the film’s young star, Karla is rather patchy, austere and lacks resonance …
Munich, 1962. Twelve-year-old Karla (Elise Krieps, daughter of Vicky Krieps) is travelling with her family in a station wagon, American Forces radio playing in the background. The car stops, they all get out and in a few moments, Karla will run and run … and run.
She arrives at night at a police station. She has looked up the law. She knows her father’s vile, indecent acts towards her are illegal and she can even quote the sections of the law that he should be charged under.
She asks to speak to a judge. Enter Friedrich Lamy (Rainer Bock). Lamy is initially reluctant to help and occasionally impatient, but he will build a case for Karla, who is too traumatised to explain to him – or anyone else – exactly what her father did to her.
She lands in a girls’ home run by humourless nuns. Karla is put to work carrying laundry bags, and the girls are dressed like something out of The Handmaid’s Tale. It feels like a prison but, for Karla, it’s better than home. It’s not clear how she manages to leave the home and visit Lamy in his office, but she sees him regularly and the pair build a connection.
In her first feature, director Christina Tournatzès coaxes a simply incredible performance from saucer-eyed newcomer Krieps. It can’t be overstated how amazing Krieps is at embodying the fear, trauma and courage of a child that has been abused. Bock is solid as Lamy, but Katharina Schüttler is somewhat self-conscious as Karla’s mother Viktoria Eben. And as Karla’s father – Karl, who she was ironically named after – Torben Liebrecht is appropriately unlikeable if a little clichéd.
Based on a true story, this film has picked up a handful of awards on the film festival circuit, including Best Screenplay and Best Director at last year’s Munich Film Festival. While it does have fine moments – the courtroom scenes definitely hold your interest – overall, it fails to hit the spot.
Tournatzès’ method is deliberately detached. She avoids manipulating the audience (there’s no soundtrack, for example). Looks good on paper, and the technique usually works, but it’s misplaced here. Despite the utterly amazing performance from the film’s young star, Karla is rather patchy, austere and lacks resonance – which is particularly disappointing considering the weighty subject matter. For an audience to sit through an unpalatable story, the filmmaking needs to be exceptional and the script gripping, but it fails on both counts. Karla has an almost generic quality. A film about child abuse should leave you reeling, instead Karla leaves you feeling very little indeed.
