"Alles ist gut" or "All Is Good" or "All Good" is a new German 2018 movie written and directed by Eva Trobisch and this is actually her first full feature release in both departments and I would say for that it is a pretty convincing and respectable achievement. It also helps with the subject perhaps that this was brought to life by a female filmmaker, although I would not call it a necessity. And this film also proves that you don't need any super famous actors to make a good script work because honestly, even I as a German film buff must say that I don't remember any of the performers here. That should not take away anything from their quality, however. Lead actress Aenne Schwarz is just as convincing with a really difficult role as pretty much all supporting players from start to finish. In these 1.5 hours we have the story of a young woman who gets raped by a man after a night of drinking and how she deals with everything afterward, i.e. her life and we ind out about the consequences of said night. It is not an in-your-face film. The rapist is not a wild beast, but a married man who regrets what he did. The victim is not one that screams out loudly and cries all the time. The words "For real now?" she uttered while being raped describe her very well. She is a tough self-confident woman who is not used to relying on help from anybody else. This is also why she cannot go to the clinic, why she cannot go to the police and why she wants a taxi driver to be the person of confidence to take her home after the abortion. Well, maybe the fact that she actually did get pregnant, was one of the rare moments I did not like that much in here, even if I liked how she says it's not even clear it is the rapist's child. Another interesting component of the film was how what happened had such a massive impact on the protagonist's boyfriend without him even knowing what happened. But he seems to feel that something really did go wrong and maybe that has to do with the scene when he completely escalated in the face of the other guy owning the apartment when the police officer enters the picture. And despite the main character's refusal to go to the police, the latter is a recurring force in here. The best example is really the very last scene before the credits roll in with the woman's refusal to leave the train despite not having a ticket. She relies on the ticket controlling people to call the police to remove her from the train. And maybe she intends to finally talk about what happened then or to hope that one of the officers will see through her in how she behaves. We will never know. It is an open ending and it is very obvious too that it will never be told by her to anyone as well. But I guess it would have been too much of a bad message sent out to audiences if Trobisch had really let him get away with it, even if at times it seems this is what the main character wants to happen, namely to ignore and forget what happened instead of seeking not only justice but also really dealing herself with what happened. Then there are of course the scenes later on between victim and offender who are really uncomfortable to watch I cannot deny. It's a heavy movie, heavy subject and painfully good performances and writing. Dead cats are still among the more harmless things you will get to see here. So if you are easily offended by violence or psychologically focused story lines about broken characters, then you should skip this one. Otherwise, really watch it if you get a hand on it. Not sure how much and how frequently it will be shown outside Germany. Thumbs-up and a positive recommendation from me.
Review of All Is Well
