The Berlinale label ‘Complicated Family Relationships’ fits perfectly with the German entry ‘Etwas ganz Besonderes’ (Something Very Special) by Eva Trobisch, which was one of the highlights of the competition. Sixteen-year-old Lea (Frida Hornemann) has applied for a casting show and is allowed to appear on television as a candidate. When she is asked in a personal portrait what is special about her, she doesn't know how to answer. But who knows that at the age of 16? Her parents have just separated, her father Matze (Max Riemelt) is still attached to his wife Rieke (Gina Henkel), who is pregnant by her new boyfriend (Florian Lukas). Frida clashes with her mother and moves in with her father.
But she gets on best with her aunt Kati (Eva Löbau), who is preparing an innovative exhibition at the local museum. The setting is East Germany, but ‘Etwas ganz Besonderes’ is not a typical film about East Germany. When Lea is asked where she comes from during a casting in a Munich TV studio, an insightful dialogue ensues. Answer: ‘From Greiz’, ‘Where is Greiz?’, ‘Near Gera’, ‘Where is that?’ ‘In Thuringia’.
Little by little, Eva Trobisch, who also wrote the screenplay, unfolds the characters' family and social networks: the parents, who are still close despite their separation; the grandparents, who run a forest guesthouse that is on the verge of bankruptcy; the museum director, who is having a Prussian residence restored with EU funds and recalls the city's industrial past. The film is skilfully constructed with a sure hand and full of unexpected twists. ‘Etwas ganz Besonderes’ has a first-class cast, with top-notch actors such as Florian Lukas and Thomas Schubert even in supporting roles. Max Riemelt is brilliant as the father who tries to keep the family together. If Germany had a film culture as strong as France's, Max Riemelt would be a big star.
Channing Tatum plays a similarly ambivalent father in the American entry ‘Josephine’. He takes every opportunity to train his daughter Josephine (Mason Reeves) in sports. As the two jog through a park early in the morning, the 8-year-old girl witnesses a woman being raped. The incident remains unresolved because the parents are unable to talk to their daughter about it. They want to protect her and cannot agree on how to deal with the situation. While the mother suggests talking to a psychologist, the father enrols her in a self-defence course.
Josephine herself develops aggressive tendencies, reacting rebelliously and violently towards her parents. In her imagination, she constantly sees the rapist next to her, in her room, at meals, on the soccer field. When the perpetrator denies all charges in court, all depends on Josephine's testimony.
‘I decided to make Josephine an extreme version of what it feels like to have female fear and keep it through the eyes of an eight-year-old girl,’ says director Beth de Araújo. At the age of 8, she herself witnessed a similar situation in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, without her parents being able to talk to her about it.
This traumatic experience haunted her for years. In her early 20s, she suddenly felt the need to write about it. She submitted a first draft of the screenplay to the Sundance Institute in 2014. Her first feature film, “Soft & Quiet” (2022), brought her to the attention of Channing Tatum, as well as Gemma Chan, whom she was able to cast in the role of the mother. At the San Francisco Hall of Justice, Araújo had the opportunity to follow a rape case from start to finish. She gained further experience at the Los Angeles Rape and Battering Hotline.
Thanks to the self-assured lead actress Mason Reeves, Beth de Araújo succeeds in ‘Josephine’ in creating an authentic portrait of childhood trauma that never becomes overly emotional or sentimental. ‘Josephine’ premiered at Sundance, where the film was celebrated by audiences and American critics alike.