German filmmaker Stefan Sick explores parts of society that other directors don’t go near. His 2019 feature doc The Inner Light, which screened in the Berlinale, looked in a forensic but insightful and tender way at the everyday lives of people with dementia.
In his new film, A Nearly Normal Life (a world premiere in DOK.fest Munich’s DOK.deutsch Competition, and due to be distributed in Germany by MindJazz early next year), the cinematographer/director turns from dotage to youth as he enters the world of four girls living in a residential home. They are troubled souls from difficult family backgrounds. They’ve endured bullying and abuse and are themselves full off anger and suspicion.
Sick spent two years following his four subjects Leni, Eleyna, Lena and Lisann, shooting over a period of 80 days and ending up with 300 hours of material. The care home featured in the documentary is based in a small rural village in the southwest of Germany, between Stuttgart and Nuremberg. “I wanted to highlight the strength and kindness of the girls, but I also wanted to portray the full emotional range and energy they brought to life,” Sick says.
There are fights and tantrums along the way. The girls were wary about their most extreme behaviour being shown on screen but the director told them he wanted to capture “the whole range” of their feelings. They emerge in a sympathetic and, at times, heroic, light. So do their carers. (“A lot of people do a great job and sometimes they are paid so bad.”)
Sick was partly inspired to make the film by his girlfriend’s experiences as a social worker. “I realised how naturally I related to young people. As a filmmaker, I found this world of youth residential care so moving and immediately saw the potential for a documentary,” he says.
The director began his career as a cinematographer. In making the transition to directing, he has avoided researching projects too intensively in advance. He is looking instead for spontaneity and authenticity.
“For me, it was important that I was seen as a filmmaker from the very beginning,” the director remembers how he tried to present himself to the girls. “I hoped that the act of filming and my presence would become normalised.”
Early on, the kids were fascinated to have a filmmaker in their midst. “There was a lot of curiosity about the gear, and about my sound guy and me.”
The girls could see that Sick was sympathetic toward them and that he was “different” from the “usual adults in their lives.” He wasn’t a family member but nor was he a care worker. “I was something in-between. That allowed for a special kind of connection…they are often starved of recognition. For a while, during shooting, I was able to offer them exactly that.”
Over time, the girls even started to help the filmmakers. “They became quite skilled with the techniques and the equipment.”
Sick forged strong bonds with his protagonists and is still in touch with some of them. “At some point, I realised it wasn’t the film project itself that encouraged the girls to open up. It was the attention I gave them.”
The documentary shows its protagonists at their rawest and most vulnerable.
“It was challenging filming in such a sensitive and private environment. First, I needed to get the trust of the parents as well – and it was really important to have the trust of the caregivers as well.”
Early on, Sick shot and edited a test sequence to show the parents and caregivers the approach he would be taking. Both groups gave him their approval.
Certain challenges the girls face seem very unfair. They are tested continually. Sometimes, to qualify for extra support from the welfare system, they are categorised as struggling. This means they are stigmatised as “stupid” or made to think of themselves as failures. Care workers go along with such a system because it unlocks extra resources. Sick argues it would be far better to say “yes, you have great potential and we will help you access this potential.”
He talks of the feelings of dismay and inadequacy he can see in the girls’ eyes when they are told that they are not reaching expected standards. “It is really a problem of the system,” the director states.
Sometimes, the girls fight among themselves or blame each other for their problems. They feel a burning sense of injustice about how they are being treated and want to be back home.
However, there is also a camaraderie between them. Alongside grim moments dealing with the girls’ trauma and isolation, Sick includes far lighter, more lyrical scenes in which we see the girls at the beach or riding bikes or losing themselves blissfully in music. The film ends with a slow-motion sequence of the girls together in an art studio, splattering paint onto canvas in happy and surprisingly creative fashion.
“For me, it was really important to show the strength of these girls, to give them some moments of joy and to allow the audience to see their willpower,” the director reflects. “What it is really about is supporting young people and allowing them to realise their full potential. Often, people see the difficulties [facing] these young people rather than their strength – and I wanted to put their strength in the foreground.”
He talks of the “good energy” that his protagonists were ultimately able to generate. Some have successfully turned around their lives.
Although he made sure the adults supported him, Sick was adamant that the story was going to be told from the perspective of the girls themselves.
There are certain thematic overlaps between the documentary and Nora Fingscheidt’s 2019 box office hit System Crasher, which dealt in fictional form with a nine-year-old girl struggling to deal with her feelings of anger and aggression. Sick knows Fingscheidt from film school days but suggests his film is very different. It may not have the dramatic peaks of System Crasher but it goes as deeply into the inner world of its protagonists.
After its Munich premiere, the film will also screen at the German Child and Youth Welfare Congress in Leipzig. (This is billed as the biggest child and youth welfare summit in Europe.) Sick and his colleagues are now also planning an impact campaign in advance of its German release. “We are pleased that the institution where we filmed is actively supporting the project and wants to help give it visibility,” the director confirms that his documentary will be shown at residential centres as well as in cinemas.
In his own career, Sick intends continue exploring the inner world of institutions and is now contemplating a new film…to be set in a hospice.
