Watching _Systemsprenger_ / _System Crasher_ is like watching a monkey play with a box of live hand grenades in a maternity ward. You know what's going to happen, it's just a question of time.

_System Crasher_ is aptly named because 1) it's about an 8-year-old girl with trauma who acts out so violently the German health care network has no place for her and 2) we, the viewer, hate her for her behavior yet can't hate her because of the abuse that caused it so our own systems crash.

The film's not an easy watch, but that's because it's so well made and because the child actor Helena Zengel is a tour de force in the role of Benni.

The biggest misstep is that _System Crasher_ starts out at an intensity of 11, so it has nowhere to go but straight, which, tragically, flattens the narrative arc.