Ben x

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Movie
German title Ben x
Original title Ben x
Ben X.jpg
Country of production Belgium , Netherlands
original language Flemish
Publishing year 2007
length 93 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 12
Rod
Director Nic Balthazar
script Nic Balthazar
production Burny Bos ,
Peter Bouckaert ,
Erwin Provoost ,
Michiel de Rooij ,
Sabine Veenendaal
music Praga Khan
camera Lou Berghmans
cut Philippe Ravoet
occupation

Ben X is a Belgian-Dutch feature film from 2007 .

action

The adolescent Ben has been an outsider since childhood and comes into psychiatric treatment early on. A doctor diagnoses Asperger's syndrome . Ben lives cut off from the outside world. His life mainly consists of the online role-playing game Archlord , which he plays every free minute and in which he is a hero at level 80 as Ben X. Its real world mixes with the world of online gaming. At school he is exposed to the bullying of his classmates, in particular he is bullied by his classmates Desmet and Bogaert. Ben struggles with them internally as Ben X is out of the game. The situation escalates when classmates put him on a table in the school class and pull his pants down. Films recorded with cell phones appear on the Internet on the same day (see Cyberbullying ). Ben's neighbor films the perpetrators.

When playing online, Ben tells his playmate Scarlite that he would like to play the endgame . With this he already announces his suicide; However, this is interpreted by Scarlite in such a way that he wants to use a content of the game for players who have reached the maximum level, which is why she wants to take on the role of healer. When Ben's playmate Scarlite from Archlord announces via MMS that she also wants to get to know him in real life , he tries to meet her at the train station. There he meets Scarlite, but doesn't dare to speak to her. He gets on the train to Brussels with her. Later she speaks to Ben without knowing who he is. Ben then flees the train and loses sight of her. When Ben is about to commit rail suicide, Scarlite pops into his imagination. She can save him from suicide and suggests that he consider an alternative endgame .

With the help of his parents, a suicide is staged during a ship trip. The video in which Ben supposedly kills himself also appears on the television news. At the memorial service, the video of Ben's seat neighbor is played, which shows the perpetrators of the cyber bullying video and their reactions. Afterwards, Ben shows himself alive on the gallery, exposing the student body, teachers and the public, who were shocked by Ben's tragic end. With Scarlite, who continues to exist in Ben's imagination, Ben feels happy in a paddock. In addition to the storyline, several pieces of interviews can be seen, in which, among other things, society is addressed in relation to the careless handling of bullying and young people at risk of suicide.

background

The film marks the debut of the Belgian travel journalist Nic Balthazar, who was inspired to write the story of Ben X by a newspaper report about the suicide of a 17-year-old autistic boy in Ghent who was virtually bullied and tortured to death . For the film, the production team obtained the license from the publishers of the game Archlord to use the game's virtual world for the film. The shooting took place online with four players. The film had its German premiere at the Berlinale 2008 in the Generation Plus14 section and was released in German cinemas on May 8, 2008. The German distributor is the Kinowelt company .

Since it can also be understood as “ben nix” in Dutch, the film title is a play on words that takes up the contrast between online hero identity and Ben's daily experience.

Reviews

“With rapid editing sequences and a collage of real-life and online game scenes, Ben X takes up a number of heavyweight topics: bullying, suicide, ignorance as well as escape into artificial worlds and alienation. The contemporary problem also gains a universal dimension through symbolic analogies to the Christian Passion story: a cross that Ben forges for himself, a 'savior scene' in the school chapel. Nevertheless, the film doesn't seem overloaded, its emotional core remains credible and comprehensible: Exclusion and bullying are not isolated phenomena, they can affect us all. The fact that Ben finally finds an unusual way out of his personal vicious circle is encouraging: Instead of giving up himself, Ben X propagates self-assertion. "

- Kirsten Taylor, fluter.de, February 4, 2008

“The film manages to make the bizarre illness autism tangible and understandable for the audience. At the same time, the story is as exciting as a thriller, extremely moving and brilliantly told in cinematic terms. A real experience! "

- Gernot Gricksch , TV Digital 10, May 2, 2008

Awards

  • Sedona International Film Festival 2008.
    • Audience Award
    • Director's Choice Award

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ age rating for Ben X . Youth Media Commission .
  2. ↑ benx.kinowelt.de ( Memento from May 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Interview by Uta Beth with Nic Balthazar , kjk-muenchen.de, 2008.
  4. ↑ kinofenster.de