User Reviews

This is a very touching story about an aggressive ghetto girl who has a look in her eyes that can kill You. One day she gets sentenced to work in a home for mentally disabled people - and then what happens? Does she change and become a good person? The beauty of this German picture is that the predictable things don´t happen. It´s a social character study shot on video, it´s very thrilling and amusing. I have heard the female lead is no actress but a doctor´s assistant and if that´s true then the director should get an award for finding her. She´s a TALENT! I recommend this amazing depiction about German street kids who think they have no other means to express themselves but aggression.

Despite its realistic approach, I did not stop the DVD. Many films are boring, so I stop watching and need a break. Not in this case.

Two main themes: 1) The reality of a modern western urban society is attacking us in this movie: no future, patchwork families, materialism, unemployment, shoplifting, juvenile female delinquency (ninja-feminism?), care for disabled persons.

2) Psychology and group behaviour, violence among friends and partners are well observed. The most intriguing, fascinating and overwhelming idea is Kroko's magic trick with the two Julias: the good and the bad one. The actors are so great, so powerful, it is not necessary to understand them. Franziska Jünger is thrilling, exciting. And despite the dark, depressing environment, which is well observed, our hope is growing for Kroko - though still tore apart between her two worlds, and tightly fixed to her old world (of being a violent child) she seems to be learning.

A great portrait by a first-time filmmaker. We will hear much more of Sylke Enders.

Much has been talked about the pros and cons of contemporary German film. While most of them still suffer from bad acting, bad directing, bad music and bad scripts, this one outdoes them all. As the previous comment is already outlining: this film shows reality much in the sense of the new realistic cinema of the 70s, that Germany never much contributed to, with one great exception: the now almost unknown, but then quite successful director Klaus Lemke. He thought of his works as "anti-intellectual" films, which means nothing more and nothing less, than getting to the nucleus of a reality shown, leaving out any moral obligations "society" may demand from an artist in his rightful attempt to simply fascinate, a point that especially in German cinema cannot be emphasized strongly enough. It may not always be in favor of brutal realism, it can even be fun. So, what is it that Sylke Enders does right? Deducting from her biography, she is a writer herself, she even does script-doctoring for others. She does this part in her own film with an admirable subtlety; only at the very end of the film, last scene, last picture, the main blonde Kroko shows one real happy smile on her face, and Enders allows the viewer to project any hope for a better world we all need into this smile. It's simply enough and by doing so she takes the viewer seriously . While other directors hammer their moral message into the audiences brains as if they are all children or imbeciles, Enders offers something much more valuable: trust. The second thing she does with vertiginous greatness: leading of the actors. It has been my suspicion for a long time that the bad acting I find in most of todays German films rather owes to the directors and the bad scripts they try to film, and not so much to the actors themselves. In the case of Kroko Franziska Jünger isn't even an educated actress. Yes, she is talented, but I think it takes a director like Sylke Enders to discover this talent, make it blossom and bring it to the screen.

Any person with fairly good knowledge of German cinema will surely tell that numerous films about a young girl having troubles with her mother as well as her boy friend have been made in the past.If such a film is shown to people again,it would surely click provided if it has something new,fresh and captivating for today's challenging audiences. This is also true for German film maker Sylke Enders as her film's principal protagonist Kroko has been mistreated by everybody around her including her mother and boyfriend.She is bold enough to face any punishment as she has tried her hand at all kinds of criminal activities including shoplifting.Kroko was originally shot on DV to be blown afterwards to 35 mm format.Its technical virtuosity does not hamper our joys when we learn that Kroko would like to become a policeman as she feels that she is averse to the idea of becoming a run of the mill hairdresser.If someone were to state a positive aspect of Sylke Enders' film,it may well be Kroko's involvement with handicapped people as a result of a punishment.It is with Kroko that we learn that punks are human too with their unique joys and sorrows.