Film review of “Until the Truth”

Saralisa Volm’s drama tells of a respected doctor whose life collapses after a summer vacation. Martina (Maria Furtwängler) spends happy days by the sea with her family and a married couple (Margarita Broich and Uwe Preuss). After a wild beach party, the unimaginable becomes reality for Martina: Mischa (Damian Hardung), her friends’ son, rapes her.

At first, Martina tries to suppress what she has experienced: “You know how quickly I get bruises, just like my mom,” she says to her friend when she notices the clearly visible marks of a violent hold on Martina’s upper arm at breakfast. Martina leaves early. Little by little, everyday life slips away from her. Traumatic memories suddenly break through her in the form of flashbacks – triggered by environmental stimuli that remind her of the rape: the music in the operating room, for example, or the water in the swimming pool where she used to swim laps regularly.

I said “No.”

When Martina confides in her husband Andi (Pasquale Aleardi) and he confronts their family, Martina’s second trauma begins. She is exposed to blame from those around her: Didn’t she drink alcohol that evening? Flirted with Mischa? She even kissed him – even though he is much younger than her! Doesn’t she therefore bear at least some of the blame? “God knows it wouldn’t be the first time that Andi wasn’t enough for her,” says Mischa’s father. “Did you defend yourself?” his mother asks. “I said no,” Martina replies. By addressing widespread rape myths, the director confronts viewers with their own stereotypes about sexual violence and illustrates how responsibility is often shifted from the perpetrator to the victim.

The film shows the crime from Martina’s perspective: the camera stays close to the main actress, but switches to a bird’s eye view after the rape, thereby impressively conveying what many of those affected experience: the feeling of observing what happened from outside – as dissociation psychological protective mechanism that enables them to mentally survive the traumatic experience.

“Until the Truth” is a moving drama that relentlessly exposes the shocking reality of sexualized violence and calls for a social rethink.

Until the Truth (film), television premiere on November 20, 2024, 8:15 p.m. (Das Erste, then also in the media library), director: Saralisa Volm, with Maria Furtwängler, Margarita Broich and Damian Hardung, among others, length: 89 minutes, production: NDR for the first