No Lullaby

People who are sexually abused have one thing in common with the rest of us: we would all rather believe it never happened. The strongest of all coping mechanisms for abuse victims and witnesses is to go into denial and bury it so deep that the memories never rise up again. That’s how Tina Reuther managed to keep going for 50 years, right up to the moment she heard the devastating truth from her daughter Floh, who was 18 years old at the time. Five years later, Floh made her accusation before a court of law. Director Helen Simon has created an ingenious and tension-laden reconstruction of Tina’s horrifying family history spanning three generations. Scenes from her daily life with her girlfriend alternate with intimate interviews at her kitchen table. This is where her fragility clearly shows through, and her revelations about her own and her daughter’s history of abuse are heartrending. The old photos of Floh, conversations with one of Floh’s friends, and the monotone voice-over reading aloud chilling court reports substantiate the tragedy of a damaged young woman who made a brave decision, and lost everything as a result.