‘Karla’ review: A young girl seeks justice in delicately calibrated German debut

Dir: Christina Tournatzés. Germany. 2025. 105mins

Silence is sinuous in Christina Tournatzés’ delicately calibrated feature debut, at times thrumming with tension and unspoken fears, at others speaking to the stoicism and inner strength of its young central character. It is Germany, 1962, and Karla (Elise Krieps) is only 12 years old when she runs away from her family and enters a police station seeking justice against her sexually abusive father. Sympathetic judge Dr Frederick Lamy (Rainer Bock) and his secretary Erika (Imogen Kogge) take up Karla’s case, and the question becomes whether they can help the youngster break through her own silence and make her voice heard.

 Elise Krieps leaves a lasting impression in her first lead role

Karla world premieres at Munich before release in Germany this autumn. It could well spark interest from festivals and arthouse distributors elsewhere, not least because of the presence of international star Bock (Inglourious Basterds, The White Ribbon) and Krieps – the daughter of actors Vicky Krieps and Jonas Laux – who leaves a lasting impression in her first lead role.

We never directly see the attacks by Karla’s father (Torben Liebrecht) but the spectre flickers up repeatedly in fleeting gauzy flashbacks, dominated by the disturbing sound of buzzing insects as Karla tries to relate her story. The youngster’s bravery is all the more remarkable given this is Germany in the 1960s: a period when, across the globe, children were supposed to be seen and not heard.

Tournatzés and screenwriter Yvonne Görlach – whose script is based on the true story of a family member – present every facet of Karla, as Florian Emmerich’s camera stays on her level and keeps the focus on the youngster throughout. The buttoned-up, heavy cloth costume design from Tatjana Brecht-Bergen and Julia Kneusels makes her seem even smaller and more vulnerable.

Krieps’ watchful nervousness is infectious and Tournatzés’ decision to eschew scoring and let the action play out mostly as a chamber piece adds to the airless tension that is generated as Karla struggles to lay out what has happened. Questions also hang over its impact on the judge’s career, as he must go out on a limb if he is to help her. The dark-brown dominated, smoke-laden production design from Maximilian Streichert adds to the strong sense of period, with the script also reminding the atrocities of the Third Reich lie in the not-so-distant past.

Although the focus is on Karla’s search for justice, she is also seen in lighter moments after being given refuge in a convent run by the strict Sister Theresa (Ulla Geiger) and where she is befriended by fellow resident Ada (Carlotta von Falkenhayn). While Ada could have benefited from more complexity in terms of character, the inclusion of these scenes helps to reinforce a point Karla articulates verbally later to the judge – that her life should not be defined by her father’s actions. The looseness and comparative levity of the convent interactions also offers respite from the judge’s oppressive office and, later, the court, and makes the tensions in those official spaces all the more palpable.

More generally, the director finds strength in contrast, with careful sound design from Darius Shahidifar fuelling the mood. This is typified by the flies buzzing in Karla’s memory, and by the purity of the sound of a tuning fork that Lamy uses to help Karla cut through the jumble of her emotions. While the focus is on Karla, Gorlach’s script is sharp when skewering adult culpability. Karla battles to take control of her own life, particularly in nerve-jangling court scenes towards the film’s conclusion, as denial and complicity find themselves in the dock.