Alles ist gut (All Is Well) is a searing German film written and directed by Eva Trobisch, her first feature-length movie, first released in 2018. It is, among other interpretations, a film about the many sides of silence.

The main protagonist is Janne, played by Aenne Schwarz. Janne is about to begin a job as a temp in a publishing company. After a class reunion party, she is raped by Martin, who, she will find out, is her future boss’s brother-in-law. What follows is a slow-paced story in which Janne acts as if nothing happened.

The film is about what not speaking about sexual coercion does to a woman, when she cannot even name what was done to her as sexual violence. The violent sexual act is treated as though it is not really violence, yet the viewers are left in no doubt about what they have witnessed. When Janne and her mother have a sauna together, and her mother asks about the bruise on the side of her face and what happened, Janne lies. Despite her mother’s repeated questions, she opts to say nothing happened. When her would-be boss, Robert, asks about the bruises, she says nothing. Her boy friend also does not get told the truth. Although they were financially insolvent before the rape, the couple are shown to have had a well-functioning relationship. What Janne wants is to go on as if all is well.

But rape alters the future and the self.

The first time Janne meets Martin after the rape is at the theatre to which Robert has invited her, because his partner is feeling unwell. At the theatre, Janne spends an uncomfortable period of time sandwiched between her boss and her rapist. After the play, Martin approaches her and wants to talk. She elects to talk about everything but the violation. And she offers her cheeks to be kissed by him, although rather hesitantly. Only when she is walking back from the theatre alone, in a telling scene, does her body shake, and through her gestures and guttural sounds we are given a sense of what is happening inside her.