Faith, Love, Hope – the names of the three chapters of Katrin Gebbe’s raw debut feature also capture the innocence of the film’s main protagonist. The young and guileless Tore has substituted an absence of family with a punk Christian sect known as the Jesus Freaks. Chance brings him to the home of the seemingly kindhearted Benno, but the boy’s vulnerability and insecurity soon attract the man’s sadistic tendencies. This intimate cinematic tragedy, which caused a considerable amount of controversy upon its screening at Cannes, toys with the viewer’s sense of empathy in a cunning and uncommonly cruel manner. In Tore’s confrontation with injustice, his total willingnesses to accept the Lord’s mysterious ways and his determination to emulate Christ’s sacrifice prove to be his greatest weaknesses. The masterfully conceived and portrayed characters render Nothing Bad Can Happen a unique exposition on the frustrations, animal instincts, violence and bestial evil hidden within human beings.
48. MFF Karlovy Vary
