Be prepared: “Combat Girls” at the AJFF
by John McCurdy, Interim Editor-in-Chief: JMcCurdy@atljewishtimes.com
Director David Wnendt’s “Combat Girls” (“Kriegerin” in its native German) pulls relatively few punches – figuratively and literally – and thereby is able to portray the extremes of compassion and inhumanity as accurately as any other film. As such, viewers seeking an escape from real life need not apply.
The movie follows Marisa (Alina Levshin), a young woman brought up in neo-Nazism by her grandfather, a former soldier of the Third Reich now on his death bed. The contrast of her hatred for immigrants, Jews, homosexuals and most other minority groups with the deep admiration and love for the man that raised her is brought up early and often and unintentionally lands her the role of protagonist.
She refuses to serve two Afghani aliens at the supermarket where she works and then later runs them off the road in her car, injuring one and stranding the other. She pummels and tattoos Svenja (Jella Haase), just 15, to initiate the latter in the skinhead culture, but soon is overwhelmed by the unfamiliar emotion of remorse as she sees her own past being repeated.
Scenes of violence – just as realistic though not quite as graphic as those in “American History X” or a realistic war film like “Saving Private Ryan” – are set to both silence and death metal music, relaying the feelings of irrationality, adrenaline and fear of both perpetrators and victims. Closeups and very simple, human dialogue (or lack thereof) furthers the sensation of immersion.
Marisa becomes progressively more disillusioned with the practices and ideas bred into her and her mentor that enforced them, revealed after his death by Marisa’s mother as a not only bigoted, but abusive, father. She’s compelled to help Rasul (Sayed Ahmad), the refugee whose brother was hospitalized and then deported as a result of the vehicular incident, and rebels against boyfriend Markus (Lukas Steltner), the most brutal of a vicious group.
It’s when she takes steps to get Rasul out of the country and Svenja away from her new “brethren” that she truly takes a stand and places herself at risk as well. She’s realizing that those different from her are not inferior and that the way of intolerance has brought only more suffering to her life – but beatings only beget more beatings.
In all, this is an intense tale from start to finish, and certainly not for the easily disturbed. It is also not an exposé of neo-Nazi culture; while Wnendt apparently did much research on the movement prior to writing, “Combat Girls” is more about its characters than its setting.
Still, it’s that setting that lends the entirety such weight and makes the film so worthwhile. To walk away unchanged is a challenge.
See “Combat Girls” at Lefont Sandy Springs on Sun., Feb. 19 at 1:35 p.m. Purchase tickets at ajff.org.