Stumme Schreie (2019 TV Movie) User Reviews

Deals with an interesting subject, but comes pretty short eventually

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 23 November 2019]

"Stumme Schreie", which means somethign like "Silent Screams", is a German small screen movie from 2019 that was directed by Johannes Fabrick and written by Thorsten Näter. Or I should say the book this is based on was adapted by Näter into a screenplay for this one. Both Fabrick and Näter are really experienced when it comes to small screen films and series actually, so they have worked on many many other projects before this one here. It runs for 90 minutes like most (German) television films and if you take a look at the cast list, you will most likely not find too many well known names. Even I as a German film buff struggled with identifying the cast members here and it is not even the case that you recognize the faces, but not the names as I did not even recognize the faces. Jürgen Maurer actually I could have come across elsewhere I am not sure. As for lead actress Natalia Belitski, I am pretty sure I have never seen her in anything and that is actually a good thing because I thought she was pretty weak and not good enough to be the only lead performer in here. Admittedly, it also had a lot to do with how her character was written. Slightly cringeworthy at times as she is the new kid on the block and seeing her struggle emotionally so much with her new field of work rarely felt like something that really touched me despite the harsh subject. The subject here is doctors dealing with patients, mostly young patients with the background that they were probably abused physically by their parents. Early on, they just act as if sometimes this happens and they hace such cases, but the longer the film goes, the more focus on this is shown. Actually, eventually the film is about nothing else anymore and that did not feel too realistic. We got the introduction with the couple where the mother is apparently the culprit, even if she hugs her boy. Then we have the key couple with the colorful hair. Hilsdorf is truly stunning by the way. Then we have a couple and their child suffers from a really rare disease as we find out, but at this point with these rushed in cases, it almost feels already like they added nothing except that they have us think about which parent is guilty. Oh well. Nearf the end, the film also feels pretty unrealistic and dramatic for the sake of it when we have Miss Blue Hair beat up our "heroine" and afterwards the latter still secretly enters the apartment and is caught in the act and gets a beating too just before the social worker (who apparently has a crush on her) shows up and police right afterwards. I also felt that the longer the film went the less realistic it feels and that is a pity because this subject totally would have deserved 100% realism, but they just went for spectacular moments instead, while at the same time actually acting as if it all felt realistic. Honestly, it was just too much: the doctor lying early on, the graphic demonstration of what happens to the hand, the boy dying, the constant drama involving Miss Bluehair and Mr. Platinum Blonde, the physical attacks on the central character and how she ignores just every role. At least, she lost her job afterwards, which was of course realistic. Had she been allowed to keep it, I perhaps would have given an even lower rating. That would have been 100% nonsense then. But she didn't. Oh yeah, the two social workers also added very little and did not feel too authentic to me. All in all, this film is not a failure thanks to somewhat decent moments like the closing shot, but it is also far away from quality filmmaking unfortunately. 1.5 very forgettable hours. I suggest you watch something else instead.