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Safy Nebbou ’s “Who You Think I Am” is not what it first appears to be. It’s a Russian nesting doll of intentions, betrayals, and self-delusions that presents its story of deception in a manner that's constantly surprising. There are few too many twists and turns in this thriller for its own good, and scenes in the first half that almost feel like they’re underlining and discussing the themes of the film lead to a sense that the project is both pretentious and overwritten. However, in every scene of this movie that she's in, which is almost all of them, Juliette Binoche reminds us why she’s one of the best actresses who ever lived. She has delivered time and time again for decades now, with no signs of slowing down, and it’s rare for a project she headlines to disappoint. She’s as reliable as they come.

Binoche plays Claire, a 50-ish professor of French literature (writers Nebbou and Julie Peyr will too often name drop and reference French Lit classics in a way that seems too self-aware, by the way). She divorced the only man she loved, Gilles ( Charles Berling ), not too long ago and juggles shared custody of their two sons with being back in the dating world. To that end, she has a much younger boyfriend named Ludovic ( Guillaume Gouix ) but learns early in the film that he kind of sees their relationship as a more casual thing than she does. When he blows her off, she develops an interest in Ludo’s roommate, another young man named Alex (Francois Civil), but she develops their partnership in a way that feels designed to insulate her from the same kind of harm. She catfishes him.

It starts with a photograph on a Facebook profile and leads to phone conversations in which Claire claims to be half her age. Claire and Alex become increasingly emotionally and sexually attached, even though she’s living a lie. All of this unfolds as a story being told to a new therapist named Dr. Bormans ( Nicole Garcia ), and those early therapy scenes have a habit of being a bit shallow. Yet through all of it, there’s Binoche, adding so much more nuance and subtlety than other actresses would have ever even considered. She finds a way to make Claire both confident and vulnerable at the same time. After all, what she’s doing hints at a deep insecurity, but it also takes nerve to form a relationship with a young man whom you’re deceiving. She’s such a fascinating actress and her work alone makes “Who You Think I Am” worth a look. 

Without spoiling, Nebbou's film is not really a sad story of a heartbroken middle-aged woman who makes a mistake on the internet. That’s an inciting incident to explore something much more complex about the stories we craft in relationships, both to our partners and to ourselves. The second half of “Who You Think I Am” sometimes feels like the kind of material that worked better on the page (it’s based on a novel by Camille Laurens ), wherein its constantly shifting realities and personalities don’t have to be captured so literally. Having said that, Nebbou does an admirable job of taking a very complex, ambitious piece of storytelling and conveying what really matters thematically and narratively. It’s mostly there in the title, although this isn’t just a story about the lies that we tell others—it’s as much, maybe more, about the lies we tell ourselves. 

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Who You Think I Am (2021)

102 minutes

Juliette Binoche as Claire Millaud

Nicole Garcia as Dr. Catherine Bormans

François Civil as Alex Chelly

Marie-Ange Casta as Katia

Guillaume Gouix as Ludovic Dalaux

Charles Berling as Gilles

• Safy Nebbou

Writer (novel)

• Camille Laurens

Cinematographer

• Gilles Porte
• Stéphane Pereira
• Ibrahim Maalouf

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Who Am I: Plot and Ending Explained (2014 Netflix Film)

Hi, this is Barry, and welcome to my site. Who Am I (Kein System ist sicher) is a 2014 German crime thriller directed by Baran bo Odar who also gave us the Netflix series DARK . The story follows a loner computer whiz and hacker who gets entangled in a series of events connected to the dark web. The film has fantastic non-linear storytelling, and the simplified depiction of the darknet is quite creative. The cast has Tom Schilling, Elyas M’Barek and Trine Dyrholm in leading roles. The story is pretty straightforward, but there might be a few loose ends you are looking to tie up. So, here’s the plot and the ending of the 2014 movie Who Am I explained; spoilers ahead.

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Oh, and if this article doesn’t answer all of your questions, drop me a comment or an FB chat message, and I’ll get you the answer .  You can find other film explanations using the search option on top of the site.

Here are links to the key aspects of the movie:

• – Plot Explained
• – Benjamin’s Past
• – Who is Marie?
• – CLAY is born!
• – Who is MRX and FR13NDS?
• – Who is Hanne Lindberg?
• – Hacking into the Federal Intelligence Service
• – Who is Krypton, and why is he murdered?
• – Hacking Europol And Ben’s Identity Reveal
• – What really happens to CLAY at the hotel?
• – Ben’s Lie
• – Hanne Gets Tricked
• – Ending Explained: What do the sugar cubes mean?

Who Am I: Plot Explained

Before explaining the ending of Who Am I, let’s quickly walk through the plot linearly.

Benjamin’s Past

Benjamin (Ben) was a quiet kid who grew up ignored by most people, specifically in the schooling years. His dad ran away when he was young. His mother developed Multiple Personality Disorder and finally killed herself. As a young boy, his grandmother raised Ben. He eventually begins to take care of his grandma until she is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and is hospitalized. Ben grows up to be a computer whiz and a talented hacker. His day job, however, is delivering pizzas.

Who is Marie?

Marie is a girl Ben likes right from his school days. To help her out in her exam, Ben decides to break in and steal the question paper for her. Unfortunately, he gets busted and is given 50 hours of community service. During that time, Ben meets Max and his two hacker friends Stefan and Paul, who are interested in Ben because of his hacker background. Ben proves that he’s the real deal and hacks into the electricity board servers and kills power to a couple of blocks. Ben does this at a party that Max and his friends crash. When the cops arrive, they make a run for it. Marie gets caught up in the getaway and leaves with Ben, who she recognizes from school.

CLAY is born!

The four men christen themselves CLAY (Clowns Laughing At You) and begin making themselves known by hacking into a couple of small events. They use Ben’s grandmother’s place, which is now empty because she is undergoing long term care at a hospital.

Who is MRX? What does CLAY want?

MRX is a genius hacker who is hailed supreme in the dark web. CLAY, specifically Max, wants the adulation of MRX, but all they get for their hacking efforts is MRX dissing them in the dark web.

Who are FR13NDS?

FR13NDS is another hacker clan like CLAY, and they are much older and more notorious. While it is only disclosed later, MRX is one of the members of FR13NDS who are connected to the Russian dark web.

Who is Hanne Lindberg?

Hanne is the lead cybercrime investigator of Europol and is after FR13NDS due to their past attacks on the German Army’s servers and the European Central Bank of Frankfurt. However, Hanne has been unsuccessful for 3 years, and her position is at risk.

Hacking into the Federal Intelligence Service

CLAY decide that they need to up their game to gain the respect of the dark web. So they break in and hack the printers at the Federal Intelligence Service overnight. The printers print the CLAY logo in the morning when the office resumes, and this becomes major news. Ben happens to find some hidden encrypted data at the Federal Intelligence Service during the night’s hacking and secretly makes himself a copy.

Who is Krypton, and why is he murdered?

Ben and Max fight over Marie, and to prove that he’s not a “nobody”, Ben thoughtlessly sends the encrypted data he stole from the Federal Intelligence Service to MRX. The encrypted data contains the names and identities of double-agent hackers who are working with cops. Krypton, a member of FR13NDS, is one such who has been giving inside information to expose FR13NDS and MRX. MRX is furious to learn about Krypton and sells this data to the Russian dark web, who murder Krypton. Since CLAY claims the Federal Intelligence Service attack, they are immediately linked with Krypton’s murder and labelled as a terrorist organization.

Hacking Europol And Ben’s Identity Reveal

CLAY contact MRX from a public internet service and MRX asks them to hack into Europol and give him backdoor access. CLAY find this to be an opportunity to trick MRX by placing a trap to expose MRX’s true identity. What is a Trojan within a Trojan? A Trojan is a program that allows an external unauthorized person to gain access to computers in a network. CLAY try their best but are unable to hack into Europol. As a last resort, they check the sewers (with no luck), and Max hurts his hand on a nail.

Ben picks up a visitor badge that one of the scholars drops. The specific access point that Ben places in Europol, claiming he’s a student who dropped his wallet, allows an unauthorized access into Europol. But the access point Ben has placed is also configured to capture and expose the IP of the person accessing it. So when MRX tries to access Europol via this backdoor, his identity would be revealed.

Unfortunately, MRX anticipates this. So for the chat where the Trojan is to be exchanged, MRX provides Ben with a specific access key. Ben unsuspectingly uses it only to be tricked and is exposed by MRX. MRX also grabs a snapshot of Ben’s face using the laptop webcam. Among many of the elements, the film shows us, this one is a little too far fetched as no hacker would leave their webcam unguarded.

What really happens to CLAY at the hotel?

Ben goes back to the hotel to tell the other claim members that he has been exposed. No, they are not dead , and he urges the rest to getaway. But they decide to stick together and get through this as a team. CLAY’s objective is to get Ben access to the Witness Protection Program to help him erase his identity from the files.

CLAY learn that Hanne has recently been suspended because of her failure to stop FR13NDS. CLAY use this to their benefit because they know how desperate Hanne will be to catch MRX and FR13NDS. With Marie’s help, they discover that people with mental illness can’t be part of the Witness Protection Program. Using this knowledge, CLAY come up with a plan. First, they place small misleading clues pointing to the possibility that Ben has Multiple Personality Disorder just like his mother. Then, they purposely puncture a nail wound into Ben’s hand for Hanne to find.

Who Am I: Explained: Ben’s Lie

This takes us to the beginning of the film, where Ben turns himself in, claiming he has info on MRX and FR13NDS. Ben lies, saying that when he went back to the hotel room, the rest of the CLAY members had been murdered, and he desperately came to Hanne. Ben gets Hanne to agree to put him on the Witness Protection Program if he helps her get to MRX and FR13NDS. She agrees. 

Ben narrates his falsified story and how it ended badly in the hotel room. After that, he gets access to a computer with which Ben mimics MRX in the dark web and circulates information that MRX is a double agent. It appears that the information that Krypton had given (in that encrypted file) allowed Ben to impersonate MRX on the darknet. The real MRX becomes furious and hacks into Ben’s conversation room using insecure methods. This is the trap Ben has set; MRX’s IP is disclosed, and the cops are deployed to his location. It turns out that MRX is a 19-year-old kid in New York and is arrested.

Who Am I: Explained: Hanne Gets Tricked

Hanne falls for the fake clues that Ben has been dropping:

• The bullets shells he hands her, claiming he found them in the hotel room where the CLAY members lay murdered, where actually his grandfathers and date back to the World War.
• Marie was instructed by CLAY to act like she never met Ben, and when she talks to Hanne, Marie says Ben was just a freak in school and doesn’t know him otherwise.
• The nail wound on Ben’s hand is something he narrates that Max got while trying to break and enter Europol.
• The fact that Ben’s mother had Multiple Personality Disorder is discovered by Hanne when she talks to Ben’s doctor. Something that CLAY expects her to do.

All the clues left by CLAY and Ben are in such a manner that Hanne feels  she  is the one deducing that Ben has Multiple Personality Disorder.

As expected by CLAY, Hanne falls for the trap and declares that Ben has MPD and that he only imagined the rest of the CLAY members. And that, in reality, Ben was the only member of CLAY committing all the cyber crimes by himself. Ben’s supposed condition makes it impossible for Hanne to take him into the Witness Protection Program. Feeling sorry for Ben, Hanne allows him to access the Witness Protection Program for a short while. Ben succeeds in his objective and successfully deletes his identity altogether.

Hanne later drops off Ben allowing him to escape with the promise that he will stop hacking. She knows Ben is small fish, and nobody will be looking for him as long as they have FR13NDS and MRX.

Who Am I: Ending Explained: What do the sugar cubes mean?

The ending of Who Am I reveals that Ben tricked Hanne into thinking that he has Multiple Personality Disorder and was the sole member of CLAY. He uses Hanne’s trust to delete his identity, takes on a new one, and leaves town with Max, Stefan, Paul, and Marie.

Ben does this trick with four sugar cubes through the inquisition, where he hides three cubes in his hands and reveals only one. Then, just before leaving Hanne’s car, Ben explains the trick to her and says, “Everyone sees what they want to see”. The four cubes represent the four CLAY members. Ben’s trick hides three of the cubes and exposes only one. This is a subtle indication of what he actually did – he hid the other three CLAY members and revealed only himself. 

Ben never wanted to be in the Witness Protection Program; he only wanted to erase his identity altogether to get a clean start as he was exposed by MRX. As soon as Ben walks away, Hanne realizes what Ben meant to tell her from the four-cube trick. But she doesn’t bother going after him as her objective is fulfilled – she has MRX and FR13NDS. In a felicitation program organized for her, Hanne smiles to herself, acknowledging Ben’s craftiness.

Barry is a technologist who helps start-ups build successful products. His love for movies and production has led him to write his well-received film explanation and analysis articles to help everyone appreciate the films better. He’s regularly available for a chat conversation on his website and consults on storyboarding from time to time. Click to browse all his film articles

Who Am I Ending, Explained

‘Who Am I: No System Is Safe’ is a German techno-thriller film directed by Baran bo Odar. It tells an intricately woven tale of a hacker who gets entangled in a plot of murder and seeks to clear his name. The film is notable for its visual depiction of technical aspects of hacking. Its unreliable narrator and cyber elements have earned it comparisons to ‘ Fight Club ‘ and ‘ Mr.Robot .’ While that is true, the non-linear narrative will hack your brain and the shocking closing moments of the film act as a Trojan virus causing your software (brain) to malfunction and affect your processing. But don’t worry, we are here with the anti-virus – the answers to all your questions about the ending of ‘Who Am I.’ SPOILERS AHEAD.

Who Am I Plot Synopsis

The film opens with an ominous murder scene, then quickly cuts to Benjamin Engel, a hacker from Berlin, sitting in an interrogation room. The officer-in-charge informs Hanne Lindberg, the Head of Europol’s Cybersecurity Department, that Benjamin has asked her to conduct the interrogation. Benjamin says that he has information about FRI3NDS, a notorious four-member hacking group affiliated with the Russian cyber mafia, and MRX, a notorious hacker popular on the darknet; he tells her that he could give them to Hanne if she listens to him. Hanne has no other choice and sits down.

The story then unfolds in a series of flashbacks. Benjamin tells Hanne that he is like a superhero: like many heroes, he has no parents. He never knew his father, and his mother committed suicide when he was eight years old. He lives alone with his sick grandmother. He considers himself invisible and calls it his superpower as most people never noticed him during childhood, and he was socially awkward. He says he learned to code and hacked his first system when he was 14 years old. Although he feels like a loser in real life, the internet gives him a sense of belonging.

While he was spending most of his time on the darknet, he met his hacking idol, MRX, whose identity is not known and who can hack into any system. Benjamin strives to be like him. However, unable to attend college, he worked as a pizza delivery boy to pay the bills. He tells Hanne that one night while delivering pizza to a group of students, he saw Marie, a girl he has been in love with since school. When he found out that she was having trouble with her exams, he decided to help her and be a “superhero.”

He went to the college, hacked its servers to download the question paper, but was caught and got arrested. Since he had no prior convictions, he was sentenced to do community service as punishment. While cleaning the streets, Max, a fellow hacker, introduces himself to Benjamin, who feels that Max is the opposite of him: charismatic and self-confident. Later, Max introduces Benjamin to his friends Stephan and Paul. After Benjamin proves himself as a hacker, Max explains that the concept of social engineering is the best way to hack.

Benjamin, Max, Paul, and Stephan form a group of hackers called “Clowns Laughing At You,” nicknamed CLAY. Using Benjamin’s house as the base of operations, they cause widespread chaos in Berlin in the form of pranks and become increasingly popular on social media. However, MRX, who Max is obsessed with, immediately taunts them. Max is enraged and wants to perform a more outrageous act of hacking, and Benjamin suggests hacking into the main building of the BND (German Central Secret Service).

The group agrees with Benjamin’s idea and decides to hack into the BND to impress MRX. With some dumpster diving and phishing, they gain access to the BND building, use their internal servers, and hack all printers to print their “NO SYSTEM IS SAFE” logo around the building, which impresses MRX. However, when they go to a club to celebrate, Benjamin notices that Max is kissing Marie. Benjamin storms off and refuses to speak to his friends or let them inside the house. Feeling inferior, he secretly contacts MRX and offers him a database of BND’s private servers that he hacked.

When the group arrives the next day, Benjamin is still angry and attacks Max, who beats him up. However, Paul hears on television that one of the FRI3NDS members, nicknamed Krypton, was murdered. Benjamin admits that he passed on the information from the BND to MRX. Upon verification, he finds that the information identified Krypton as a double agent working with Hanne to expose MRX and FRI3NDS. MRX frames CLAY for Krypton’s murder. To clear their names from the murder charge, Benjamin contacts MRX, who instructs them to hack into the Europol database in exchange for MRX’s identity and provides them with a hacking tool.

After dissolving their hard drives in acid to erase data, they travel to Europol’s Hague headquarters. They try to hack the servers of Europol, but their previous methods of dumpster diving and phishing attempts fail. While leaving the building, Benjamin notices that a student visiting the building drops her visitor’s card. Benjamin recollects Max’s advice on social engineering and gains entry to the premises.

He attaches a hacking device in the canteen and uses it to hack into Europol’s internal servers and provides MRX with an entry that was secretly encrypted in a double Trojan so that if MRX tried to gain access, his real identity would be exposed. MRX sees through this ruse and exposes Benjamin. He is attacked by the Russian mafia and barely manages to get away safely. Benjamin returns to the hotel where he is staying with his friends and finds them dead. This scene bookends the film’s opening scene. Fearing FRI3NDS are going to kill him, he decides to turn himself in.

To prove he is serious, he reveals personal information about Hanne, who was suspended because she failed to capture FRI3NDS and MRX. Hanne agrees to include Benjamin in a witness protection program in exchange for help in catching FRI3NDS and MRX. Benjamin signs up as MRX himself and spreads lies about MRX being a snitch, forcing the real MRX to use insecure methods to break into darknet servers. This allows Benjamin to expose him, and MRX is revealed as a 19-year-old American boy from New York City, who the FBI arrests in a cafe. Two shocking revelations come to light in the aftermath of these events that untie and tie the entire plot simultaneously.

Who Am I Ending: How Does Benjamin Hack Hanne?

After agreeing to put Benjamin in the witness exchange program, Hanne notices a wound running through his palm (the same injury Max got after driving a nail through his hand) and suspects that Max, Stephan, and Paul are fictional characters. To find answers, she visits Benjamin’s doctor, who claims that his mother had multiple personality disorder and therefore committed suicide, and learns that it can be genetically inherited.

Hanne connects several plot holes in Benjamin’s story and realizes that “he” alone was CLAY; he hacked the BND alone and planted his grandmother’s WWII bullets in the hotel to make it look like his friends had been killed. Hanne confronts Benjamin, who has an emotional breakdown after discovering that people with mental disorders cannot get witness protection. However, Hanne changes her mind at the last moment and gives him access to the witness protection program, which turns out to be a “real” program containing information about all citizens of Germany.

Benjamin changes his identity here. Hanne allows Benjamin to go on the condition that he never hacks again. Benjamin, who now has blonde hair, is alone on a ferry. However, Marie, Max, Stephan, and Paul suddenly join him. In an expository scene, Benjamin explains that he pulled off “the greatest social engineering stunt” of all time by hacking a person, Hanne, and getting what he wanted. The scene switches back to Benjamin, who returns to the hotel and finds the boys alive and well. He tells them to run away as MRX knows his identity, but they refuse to leave him behind.

After Marie visits them and confirms that people with mental illness cannot receive witness protection, they devise a plan for Benjamin to go to Hanne and dictate the story. He deliberately gives holes in the plot that she is likely to decipher and then uses her to get into the witness protection program. In the server room, it is revealed that Benjamin did not change his identity; he erased it. Benjamin claims that Hanne will eventually realize his deception, but she will not pursue them.

Does Benjamin Have Multiple Personality Disorder?

The film never clarifies if Benjamin is sick or if it is an elaborate set-up, as he claims in the climax. It is possible that he is sick, and his friends are a manifestation of his multiple personality disorder. He is seen continuously taking a drug that is considered a hallucinogen. We never really learn much about his friends, not even their full names, and they appear out of nowhere to join Benjamin on the boat. All this points to the fact that Benjamin could have multiple personality disorder.

But as Benjamin himself states at the beginning to Hanne, “Every little detail is important,” and it is these details that will give us a definitive answer. To prove his point, Benjamin performs a magic trick immediately after saying this dialogue. He collects four sugar cubes in his palm, and when he opens it, there’s only one; he again closes his palm and reopens it to reveal all four cubes. In the final moments, Benjamin explains this trick to Hanne and says, “Everyone only sees what they want to see.”

This moment subtly reveals that Benjamin has planned the plot holes in the story on purpose and wants Hanne to see them. The presence of four cubes itself is an indication that the four members of CLAY are four different people. Another clue is when Hanne goes to Benjamin’s house, she finds the drug packet in his dustbin. It is entirely possible that he planted it there. But the big clue here is the poster on the wall, a poster from ‘Fight Club.’

The parallels between ‘Fight Club’ and ‘Who Am I’ become stronger and stronger as the film progresses (Benjamin’s look even resembles that of Edward Norton ), and anyone who’s seen the former film will immediately claim that Benjamin has multiple personality disorder. But if you’ve forgotten, let us remind you – “Everyone only sees what they want to see.” Thus, the obvious parallels between the two films are a clever misdirection in our opinion. Benjamin does not have a multiple personality disorder. It was merely a deception to get what he wanted.

Read More: Best Hacker Movies 

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Eye For Film >> Movies >> Who Am I - No System Is Safe (2014) Film Review

Who am i - no system is safe.

Reviewed by: Luke Shaw

Hacking is the modern day Hollywood bogeyman. If it isn’t the vague other of a terrorist cell threatening our liberty, it’s a shady group of anonymous hackers using unconvincing graphics of hacking programs to egregiously shut down the internet with a keystroke, take control of military hardware, or other such ridiculous conceits. Whilst these representations might wash with the general populace, whose knowledge of computers often begins and ends with logging on to Facebook, they're hard to take seriously alongside growing fear around the activity of genuine hacking cells, and real security concerns.

The bitter pill would be a lengthy, serious documentation of the real life of a hacker. The more appealing, sugar coated solution is WHOAMI, a whip-smart, stylish film with a plot that manages to ground its action in some tech information that pays more than just lip service to the reality of cyber crime.

Tom Schilling is introverted loner Benjamin, a shut-in who dreams of being a superhero, qualifying his fantasy due to his parent’s absence and his ability to remain invisible to his peers. His other, more useful talent is a preternatural ability to hack and crack programs and security protocols. The film is framed by his confession to Hague Cyber Crime operative Hanne Lindberg (Trine Dyrholme), and Benjamin delivers the story via some admittedly overwrought narration.

Stalling socially in a dead-end pizza delivery job, he finds his tech skills eventually land him in the company of a group of small-time hackers led by the charismatic Max (Elyas M’Barek). The typical trials and tribulations of a roguish band of thieves follow. Instead of physical theft, cyber-crime lends itself to pranks and sticking a middle finger up at the authorities, so beyond the morally dubious nature of their activities, they mainly focus on trying to make news hits and YouTube views in order to court the attention of more prestigious hackers.

Consolidating their friendship, they do their best to break down Benjamin’s insular nature and help him connect with his high school sweetheart Marie, with Max leading with a mantra of ‘Be audacious, and aim for the impossible’. Before long, everything comes crashing down around them as their cyberspace activities lead to dire consequences in meatspace as Benjamin makes a mistake which leads to a fellow hacker being murdered. This is where the story loops back to the confessional scene, as Benjamin barters the identity of various hackers for a chance at Witness Protection.

This alone would make for a compelling, tense and shrewd cyber-heist film, a light but easy to recommend thriller. Not satisfied with this, Jante Friese and Baran bo Odar stay true to the words of Max, and pull of an audacious final act which manages to provide a conclusion that’s equal parts Prestige , Fight Club and Usual Suspects : absurd in its complexity, but confidently presented through a Gordian knot of narrative kinks, where even the exceptional likeness of Schilling to Edward Norton is surely not a happy coincidence, nor a cheap trick.

Whilst the convoluted ending may not be to everyone’s taste, Who Am I succeeds because it grounds its braggadocio in action that never feels beyond the realms of possibility. Hacking is achieved through a mix of software, hardware, and on-site activity. There are very few absurd technological leaps, and although it wears its know-how on its sleeve, it never comes across as too arcane. If anything, it embarrasses Holywood’s recent tech-thrillers, and manages to do so whilst striking out as its own unique vehicle. with a satisfying and wry ending.

Director: Baran bo Odar

Writer: Jantje Friese, Baran bo Odar

Starring: Tom Schilling, Elyas M'Barek, Wotan Wilke Möhring, Antoine Monot Jr., Hannah Herzsprung, Stephan Kampwirth, Trine Dyrholm, Leopold Hornung, Katharina Matz, Leonard Carow, Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey, Matthias Neukirch, Nils Borghardt, Alexander Hauff, Antonia Putiloff

Runtime: 107 minutes

Country: Germany

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Who Am I Movie Review : A deeply unsatisfying answer to existential questions

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Who Am I - Official Teaser

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Users' Reviews

Refrain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks, name calling or inciting hatred against any community. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines by marking them offensive . Let's work together to keep the conversation civil.

Arpan Dandothkar 18 213 days ago

Need more encouragement and more movies like this to be shot. Very deep rooted with real sense of culture. Sanatan dharm is all about asking the questions and trying to find answers. Wish the questions left to find answers than diving back into sansarik dharm. <br/>Still I congratulate the whole team. Great piece of art work

Navin Gupta 2056 216 days ago

one of the best.. must watch

Sumit Kumar 420 days ago

Kaushik biswas 2166 507 days ago.

A the story goes the could be a great one, but director couldn't make out from typical Bollywood style, some songs are completely unnecessary there. There is lot of scene which is unnecessarily used. Anyway, the story is good.

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Dove Review

Who Am I? is ambitious, that’s for sure. It tackles a lot, largely through the experiences of a character named Tasha who is forced to confront that question as she walks in the newness of life in Christ Jesus. She has what generously would be called a checkered past, and even amid the obvious sins—prostitution, human trafficking, drug dealing prominent among them—she carries a secret pain that has dominated her existence.

Tasha (Amber Shana Williams) has been to jail 45 times, but the last of those visits got her attention because in it she had a vision of her going to Hell that led her to repentance. Living near San Antonio, Texas, she joins a church led by Pastor Joe (Josiah David Warren) and leaves her demons behind—though even those who seem to love her most try to keep dragging her back to her old ways. As the story unfolds, a different issue comes to the fore that could be its own movie: How the church accepts or rejects those it deems different, dealing with suicide, homosexuality, racism, drunkenness, child neglect, school bullying and how the American health care system is so broken that citizens go to Mexico to get care they can’t at home.

Packing all that into 88 minutes is tough to pull off, but once the moviemaker concentrates more on abortion and human trafficking, it clears some of the clutter and makes no bones about the fact that Jesus is the answer to these ills. The faith aspect is unmistakable as Pastor Joe helps Tasha tackle the issues that make her ask the question, “Who am I?”

The subject matter can be a little mature and intense at times, so in keeping with our recommendations with other movies that deal with these issues, Who Am I? merits the Dove-Approved Seal for Ages 18+.

The Dove Take:

A movie that tackles the hot-button issues of the day head-on, declaring that everybody has worth and that even the least of us is not beyond redemption.

Dove Rating Details

Impossible to miss that faith is the single most important aspect of the movie.

A man pulls a knife in order to recover money he's owed; students bully a girl for being smelly and dirty.

Flashbacks show Tasha used to be a madam, and she confesses to have been an exotic dancer.

There is a lot of harsh language from characters who avoid four-letter words.

Scenes show Tasha's past as a drug dealer; Tasha's mother drugs her drink to facilitate stealing money from her.

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Who am i - kein system ist sicher.

Directed by Baran bo Odar

No system is safe.

Benjamin, a young German computer whiz, is invited to join a subversive hacker group that wants to be noticed on the world's stage.

Tom Schilling Elyas M'Barek Wotan Wilke Möhring Antoine Monot Jr. Hannah Herzsprung Trine Dyrholm Stephan Kampwirth Leopold Hornung Katharina Matz Marten Borgwardt Leonard Carow Antonia Putiloff Agnes Thi-Mai Lena Dörrie David Masterson Mike Davies Sara Bernhardt Alica Hubiak Rosa Schrehardt Matthias Neukirch Nils Borghardt Alexander Hauff Max Hopp Björn Susen Katja Wagner Barbara Hahlweg Marc Bator Stephanie Puls Harald Geil

Director Director

Baran bo Odar

Producers Producers

Max Wiedemann Stefan Gärtner Quirin Berg Daniel Mattig

Writers Writers

Baran bo Odar Jantje Friese

Editor Editor

Robert Rzesacz

Cinematography Cinematography

Nikolaus Summerer

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

Justyna Müsch

Lighting Lighting

Matthias Hildebrand Oliver Kühne André Poser Björn Susen

Camera Operators Camera Operators

Christian Kitscha Patrick-David Kaethner

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Antje Taubert

Stunts Stunts

Melanie Benna Daniela Stein Wanja Götz Georg Ebinal François Doge Nils Lange Christian Bernutz Piet Paes Kristoffer Fuss Volkhart Buff

Composer Composer

Michael Kamm

Sound Sound

Florian Holzner Bernhard Joest-Däberitz

Costume Design Costume Design

Ramona Klinikowski

Makeup Makeup

Sonia Salazar-Delgado Kitty Kratschke Kathi Kullack

Seven Pictures Deutsche Columbia Pictures Filmproduktion Wiedemann & Berg Film

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

English German

Releases by Date

03 may 2016, 25 sep 2014, 29 sep 2014, 03 jun 2015, 13 aug 2015, 25 aug 2023, 22 mar 2015, 30 may 2015, 06 aug 2015, releases by country.

• Physical 16 DVD / BD
• Theatrical 12
• Premiere Europe on Screen
• Digital R18+

Russian Federation

• Theatrical 18+
• Theatrical 16 ICAA 57818

Switzerland

• Theatrical 15
• Theatrical NR

105 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by timcarrey ★★½ 12

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

How to watch Who Am I: 1) Imagine Fight Club was made in Germany and The Narrator is a hacker now 2) Forget what you just imagined and (re)watch Fight Club 3) Be happy

Added to: 2014 - Ranked

Review by Lucas Barwenczik 12

Cool, bei GZSZ geht es jetzt auch ums Hacken.

Hoffnungslos generisches Cyber-Kasperletheater, das sich aggressiv ideenlos seine stümperhaft erzählte Geschichte bei diversen 90er-Kultfilmen zusammenklaut. Wäre ich an "Hackers", "Matrix", "Fight Club" oder "The Usual Suspects" beteiligt gewesen, ich würde dem maßlos untalentierten Baran bo Odar den Arsch wegklagen. Inszenatorisch kommt nicht ein eigener Gedanke auf, Klischee jagt Klischee. Im RTL 2 Mittagsprogramm ist mehr Eigenständigkeit und Originalität zu spüren.

Unsympathische Darsteller spielen noch unsympathischere (in Ermangelung eines besseren Wortes) "Figuren". Elyas M'Barek spielt nicht, sondern stellt sich auf das Set und sagt Sätze auf.

Die Wendung werden bis zum erbrechen ausezählt, weil der Regisseur sein Publikum für so intelligent wie Nacktschnecken hält. Das Drehbuch verhält sich mit seinen Symbolen und…

Review by Zegan ★★★★★ 1

f19ht_club : who are you? who the fuck are you? whoami : who am i? i'm the one who just hacked you

Review by THErealBat ★★★½ 2

This review is a review with a spoiler warning for the first time in a long time because I absolutely have to talk about the ending, which is good but also a bit confusing.

First to the story. The movie started and ran and ran and didn't really pick me up. But then when the characters were introduced and the real story started the movie became good. I wasn't sure if this movie was really good until the end, but after the ending my opinion changed. Before the ending I thought that the main character looked a bit like Edward Norton and also during a short sequence you could see a poster of the movie "Fight Club" in the room…

Review by Warp ★★★

Nice and smooth cyber thriller with decent cinematography, some banging songs and a few good twists in the story. Due to the extremely fast pace, the few improbabilities are less noticeable. The end is remarkably unlikely, of the order of magnitude 'too good to be true'.Still quite a nice watch that absolutely never bores.

Review by Fred 🇵🇷 ★★★★

'Now You See Me' meets' 'Mr. Robot' with a dash of 'The Matrix' thrown in for some sleekly glitzy thematic zest.

Being the massive 'Dark' (if you haven't watched it, all three glorious seasons are on Netflix now!) fan that I am, all it took for me to check this techno-thriller out was seeing series director Baran bo Odar's name. The millisecond I did, I quite literally dropped what I was doing and watched this.

It was the best decision I could've made.

Frenetically paced but with the kind of continually unfolding intrigue that makes you hang on to your chair, 'Who Am I – Kein System ist sicher' is devoted to keeping you on the edge of that seat…

Review by Steph_h ★★★★ 1

Very cool german hacker thriller, about a group of friends that wind up taking things too far .. it’s like a mix of fight club and now you see me .. the twists seemed predictable but then they got me !

Review by Zegan ★★★★★

Ngak cuma aksi hacking-hackingnya aja yang keren, tapi cara penyajian ceritanya, sinematografinya, music scoring-nya dan plot twist-nya juga keren, bahkan plot twist-nya jauh lebih kerena sangat tidak terduga dan sulit ditebak ternyata plot twist-nya berlapis.

Ada yang bilang kalau film ini mirip Fight Club, awalnya aku iyakan saja mungkin film ini terinspirasi dari itu, tapi setelah dilihat lebih dalam ternyata jauh banget, cuma suasananya aja yang mirip, tapi premis dan twist-nya beda sekali.

Suka banget dengan cara penyajian Baran Bo Odor di film ini yang namanya baru kukenal sejak menggarap series Dark, pokoknya keren abis, sebagai contoh penggambaran dunia maya yang digambarkan seperti dalam gerbong kereta api.

Dan yang paling keren dan epic di film ini adalah saat-saat di mana…

Review by Chris W ★★★★½ 2

GODDAMN. This fantastic but sadly overlooked German film tells the story of a social outcast who joins a group of hacktivists. This movie’s style is massively influenced by Fight Club ; so much that some might dismiss this movie as a rip-off. However, believe me that the Fight Club parallels are intentionally planted into the movie and that it has much more to offer.

I enjoyed that the hacking aspect of the movie is handled with care and with a lot more “realism” than most movies that deal with this topic. Of course the digital stunts they pull off aren’t very realistic, but the dialogue shows that the writers did their research and went beyond “hacking the mainframe”.

I love the…

Review by Zero Ena ゼロエナ ★★

GZSZ ist unter die Hacker gegangen und dabei hängt sich der Rechner dauernd auf! Beim erneuten hochfahren friert der Monitor ein, wieder und wieder!

Baran bo Odar beweist, dass er als Regisseur ein gutes Händchen hat. Aber das Drehbuch hat er offenbar mit den Füßen geschrieben. Ein Klischee jagt das nächste und die Figuren benehmen sich teils affig und sind unsympathisch! Die Wendungen im Verlauf des Films kommen so überraschend, wie das Aufhängen des PCs beim Besuch auf einer Pornoseite aus Polen oder Tschechien! Ne sorry, das war nix!

Wenn das also einer der besseren deutsche Filme ist, dann möchte ich nicht wissen wie die schlechten aussehen.

Review by Katalas ★★★½ 2

I love the world of computers and especially when it comes to this underground world of hacking and everything that includes cyber-crime. This is an area that fascinates me to the point that sometimes I too would have liked to be endowed with this talent in programming and being the vigilante to track down anyone who has committed atrocious acts or to denounce companies for their dubious activities.

I think that, for some time now, cinema seems to realize how fascinating the subject is and begins to take hacking more seriously when it comes to showing it on screen (I think in particular of the series Mr. Robot which is for me the perfect example).

This remark is true in…

Review by Albert Luís O. Bezerra ★★★★½ 3

Among Us na vida real... Alguém sabotou um departamento...

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Who Am I – Netflix Review (4/5)

Posted by Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard | Feb 26, 2021 | 3 minutes

WHO AM I is a new thriller on Netflix by the creators of DARK . It’s a fast-paced story that has lots of twists and a big nod to Fight Club . However, don’t think you’ve got it all figured out until the very final scene. Read our full Who Am I movie review here and find it on Netflix now!

WHO AM I is a German thriller on Netflix by the DARK series creators. The original full title is “Who Am I – Kein System ist sicher” and the last part of the title is German for “No system is safe”. Obviously, this is a pretty big plot point in a movie about hackers.

The cast is full of familiar faces from  Dark  (of course), so if you’re a fan of that series, you’ll probably enjoy this. Also, the main protagonist is portrayed by Tom Schilling who also starred in Never Look Away  (2018). A German movie that was nominated for two Academy Awards.

Continue reading our Who Am I movie review below. The movie is out on Netflix now.

A movie that draws on winning elements of other films

Who Am I reminded me of a (very!) updated version of the 1995 movie Hackers that starred Angelina Jolie and Jonny Lee Miller. Just like with that movie, the actual job of hacking is shown in a more creative way to help the viewer keep up. And also, to keep it interesting for the audience.

Even more so, however, I was reminded of the German movie  Good Bye Lenin! (2003) starring Daniel Brühl of  The Alienist  series. Mostly, this latter movie is an obvious comparison in the narrative style since we have the main protagonist as a storyteller. 

Finally, there’s the  very  obvious  Fight Club comparison which should be impossible to miss quite early on. However, this isn’t (really) a spoiler, so don’t think you’ve got it all figured out. You’ll see!

The ending of  Who Am I  on Netflix

This is  not  a “the  Who Am I ending explained” piece, but rather a comment on the ending. Mostly, it’s a strong recommendation that you  pay attention to this movie because it will keep you guessing.

Overall, the movie is quite fast-paced and features many  elements that will make you think of Fight Club . However, rest assured that this is very intentional. If nothing else, the obvious Fight Club movie poster, shown on a wall at a critical point, should make this clear.

Also, don’t make the mistake of thinking you’ve got it all figured out until the very final scene. This is, after all, a movie by the same people that gave us the sci-fi mystery Netflix series Dark . In other words, yes, I did enjoy the ending of  Who Am  I . Also, I’ll gladly admit that when I  thought  I had first figured it out, I got annoyed that it wasn’t original. Ultimately, it was.

Watch  Who Am I  on Netflix now!

Baran bo Odar is the director of  Who Am I as well as the co-writer of the screenplay alongside Jantje Friese. And yes, this is  the actual duo that created the German Netflix series Dark . Baran bo Odar directed all 26 episodes (across three seasons) of the series and both are listed as “creators”.

In other words, this is unlike the new Netflix series  Tribes of Europa which is promoted as being “by the  Dark  creators” but only has some producers in common.

Also, this is not a new movie but it is  new to Netflix. The film first came out in 2014 but it has hardly aged, so that shouldn’t be an issue.

Also, it is obvious why a release on Netflix should happen now with the very active partnership with husband and wife duo, Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese. Especially since the duo is now working on their next Netflix series  1899  due out in 2022. In the meantime, have fun checking out this movie which was the first thing they wrote together.

Who Am I  is out on Netflix in most countries from February 26, 2021.

Director: Baran bo Odar Writers: Jantje Friese, Baran bo Odar Stars: Tom Schilling, Elyas M’Barek, Wotan Wilke Möhring, Antoine Monot Jr., Stephan Kampwirth, Leopold Hornung, Trine Dyrholm, Hannah Herzsprung, Leonard Carow

After his compatriots are murdered by Russian gangsters, a hacker confesses the history of his elite, fame-seeking group to a Europol investigator. They’re top-tier hackers: talented, craving infamy and willing to break the law. But they may have been too successful.

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About The Author

Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard

I write reviews and recaps on Heaven of Horror. And yes, it does happen that I find myself screaming, when watching a good horror movie. I love psychological horror, survival horror and kick-ass women. Also, I have a huge soft spot for a good horror-comedy. Oh yeah, and I absolutely HATE when animals are harmed in movies, so I will immediately think less of any movie, where animals are harmed for entertainment (even if the animals are just really good actors). Fortunately, horror doesn't use this nearly as much as comedy. And people assume horror lovers are the messed up ones. Go figure!

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‘i am: celine dion’ review: power ballad queen chronicles her new reality in amazon’s moving portrait.

Irene Taylor's documentary details the Canadian star's struggles with Stiff Person Syndrome and appraises the impactful legacy of the singer's career spanning four decades-plus.

By Lovia Gyarkye

Lovia Gyarkye

Arts & Culture Critic

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In the world of celebrity documentaries, hagiographies reign supreme. Rare is the film that fulfills its promises of intimacy, vulnerability and never-before-seen perspectives. The films are generally risk-avoidant exercises that have perfected the optical illusion of making subjects seem closer than they actually are. 

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Why u.k. music festivals are in crisis, travis kelce says prince william was "the coolest motherf***er" at london eras tour meetup, i am: celine dion.

In I Am: Celine Dion , the singer demonstrates the extent of her readiness. Directed by Irene Taylor ( Leave No Trace, Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements ), the film builds on the confessional energy of the Instagram video by inviting fans to bear witness to her struggles with SPS. It is at once a moving tribute to Dion’s legacy, a peek into how this condition has challenged her gifts and an attempt to help the pop star wrestle with what this means for her future.

Taylor, working with DP Nick Midwig, fashions a verité-style documentary that keeps audiences close to Dion as she hangs out with her children, undergoes extensive rehab and immunotherapy and tries to rebuild her sense of self. What does it mean that her body’s internal war has debilitated her voice, which she calls “the conductor of her life?”

This introduction makes immediately clear the degree to which Dion’s life has changed with SPS. No longer can the balladeer fiercely belt the tearful lyrics of her heavyweight discography for hours. She can no longer record three songs in a night or put on performances of a lifetime week after week.

Dion sings in registers that require less work, as demonstrated later when she records a track for the Netflix movie Love Again starring Priyanka Chopra. Taylor and her editors Richard Comeau and J. Christian Jensen stitch together a number of Dion’s session takes to show the effort required for the singer to do what once came so naturally. Through moments like these the director builds an affecting project of contrasts: A portrait of Dion, past and present. 

When Taylor and Dion dig into the past, the results are edifying. A trip to the singer’s warehouse, stocked with costumes, shoes and other memorabilia from her decades-long career, is a chance to review her legacy. Dion, now 56, rummages through the items while highlighting key moments in her career. She talks about her relationship to fashion, remarking with a wink that her shoe size ranges from a 6 to a 10 because she doesn’t mind suffering for the perfect piece.

The “we” is critical. Throughout I Am: Celine Dion , the Canadian singer expresses profound gratitude for members of her team, from the people who helped stage her tours to the medical professionals, including Dr. Amanda Piquet, helping her manage SPS. There are no interviews with this supporting cast, however. I Am: Celine Dion doesn’t supplement its subject’s testimony with anyone. Instead, like that Instagram video from 2022, it functions as a direct communion between herself and her fans. 

Dion genuinely believes in the power of moving farther together. “I didn’t invent myself, I didn’t create myself,” the Québecoise singer says at one point in the documentary. One wonders if this commitment to teamwork stems from a childhood spent with a big family. Dion was born in Québec to a family of 14 children. According to the singer, her parents worked hard to make sure the kids would never be aware of any suffering. Her mother invented dishes when there was little food in the fridge and Dion counts her siblings as her first audience.

I Am: Celine Dion steadies itself when it returns to the intersection of Dion’s career with her medical condition. The film highlights just how much music means to the singer. She uses any opportunity — creating a get well video with her sons, doing physical therapy — to break into song.

In interviews, Dion works through her anxieties and concerns. She worries about not being able to control her voice in the same way or whether or not she has the energy to live life as she once knew it. There are moments in the doc when the singer, in the middle of an activity, will remark on her legs and other parts of her body feeling sore or tired.

The film is as much about the singer as it is about the realities of living with a chronic illness. Taylor does not shy away from sitting in on difficult points in Dion’s life, including one painful scene in which the singer seizes up after a busy and overstimulating afternoon. Her foot stiffens first and then her entire body locks in place. As her doctor moves Dion to lie on her side and urges her to take deep breaths, tears stream down the singer’s face.

This palpable and visceral glimpse into her pain is a jolting reminder of the toll this condition has taken on Dion not just as a star but as a person. 

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Who Am I Now? Review

Posted by Ping | 21 June 2021 | Film & TV , Film & TV Reviews , Film Review

Who Am I Now?

Drama, Romance, 1hr 32min

Log line: Come out and find yourself.

Who Am I Now? is engaging, relatable, and occasionally excruciating – in a good way…

Who Am I Now? is like a collage that is rough around the edges but admirable as a whole. It has not just one coming out story but two rolled into one film. The two female leads Alex (Joanna Gaskell) and Erin (Alicia c. Snee), upon finding each other, are forced to face their true selves and confront their fears. A whole lot of drunkenness, arguments, and internalised homophobia ensues and the film delivers it all with raw and emotional realism. It’s the kind of film where it may be all too easy to pick sides and build up resentment for the mistakes being made, but after taking a breath and coming to terms with these characters and the journeys they’re on, it actually makes for a very insightful and mature story.

Written and directed by Louise E. Lathey, Who Am I Now? is her first feature film. The original screenplay was written more than a decade ago and- despite the challenges of making the film during the COVID-19 pandemic- Louise managed to put it all together. In an interview with CBC’s ‘On the Coast with Gloria Macarenko’ , Louise mentions that it ‘was the hardest thing [she’s] ever done in her life’. The film was clearly dear to her heart and an impressive feat at that. Who Am I Now? follows a small band of friends who are all typical students and like to play hard, work hard, and occasionally study hard. In Alex’s own words, Erin ‘comes in wearing a hot dress and f***s everything up’. That is the crux of the story. How Alex, Erin, and Alex’s close friends Julia (Alethea Sholomenko) and Zack (Cameron Paisley) all respond to and deal with the situation at hand is what gives the film substance. This is not just a love story between two women, nor is it merely two coming out stories, this is the paths of two people colliding to forever alter their own and each other’s journeys.

This is where I must tip my metaphorical hat to Louise E. Lathey for achieving what she did with Who Am I Now? The intimate scenes and seemingly effortless sets captured during the film, including clubbing scenes, are that much more remarkable considering that the film was produced during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Granted there were some obvious clichés and comedic phrases such as ‘I’ve come to see if you’re coming out’, applying sunscreen on a love interest, and being a gay-panic-stricken klutz, but the tone throughout comes across as sincere and easy to watch. Perhaps pleasantly surprising is that the side characters were the main selling point for me. Yes, you end up rooting for Alex and Erin’s happiness, however which way it falls (as you should) but their friends’ role in helping them along their paths of self-discovery was equally important. Reminiscent of the ‘VIP’ trio from The Fortnight series , the 3 best friends here are given a depth of character and supportive stance that not only comes across as realistic but a joy to watch. A mark of a good film is when even the side characters are given the weight they deserve. We are all social creatures to varying levels, something that the pandemic has exposed for us all, I’m sure, and no story is complete without realising the influence the people around the main characters have on the storyline.

The attention to detail to words in the script reveals Louise E. Lathey’s long-standing passion for writing screenplays, which began when she was about 12 years old. To give you a little flavour of what the film entails, here are a couple of my favourite quotes: Julia: ‘I will help you bury the body, I will destroy the evidence, it honestly can’t be that bad’ …’I’m sorry you were so scared to tell me that’ There was also no better song to encapsulate the entire film than the closing song “Just Fine” by Desiree Dawson where she sings ‘I’m just trying to find the answers’ and ‘there’s a part of me that knows I’ll be just fine’. Also, the best ending credit I’ve ever seen has to be ‘No thanks whatsoever to COVID-19’.

All in all, Who Am I Now? is engaging, relatable, and occasionally excruciating – in a good way. The dynamics between the characters come across as genuine, there are some blunt conversations and awkward moments, but when all was said and done, what unfolded were a few coming-of-age stories that were not only captivating to watch, but important to tell. The only less believable aspect of Who Am I Now? was that the cast were young enough to even be in school together (they looked far too old to pull that off) but let’s not get caught up on technicalities. Let us acknowledge that everyone’s coming out stories are unique and when ‘one person shifts your entire outlook on the world’ as Alex did for Erin, fear, internalised homophobia, shocking reactions, and outbursts of unacceptable behaviour can all come to the surface for anyone involved. Telling these stories and giving them both depth and some sort of resolution is gratifying and important for an audience to see. If making a film during a pandemic is not clear enough of a message that the film means a lot to the filmmaker, then I would encourage you to watch Who Am I Now? and feel the emotions pour out from the screen.

Fans of The Fortnight series and Justine (available to rent on Lesflicks Video-on-Demand ) may also like Who Am I Now?

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To find out more about the cast, crew, genre and where you can get this film, check out the LesFlicks Film Database.

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Ping believes in the power of love and kindness, and that "love is love" no matter what shape or form it comes in. She would like to see positive representation for all walks of life in film and media.

Sapphic Nation is proud to be a part of a Sapphic Utopia - a new initiative bringing together several brands under a common umbrella which offers lesbian, bisexual, trans and non-binary women access to a range of resources and services that amplify the community and the creativity of it's members.

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Who Am I Reviews

The makers of "Who Am I" ultimately reach the same conclusion of its hero Benjamin, who learns that the trick to hacking is no different than devising your average con with its success based on outwitting someone's basic social engineering.

Full Review | Nov 15, 2018

There is something human and heartwarming about "Who Am I - No System Is Safe," a film with a relatable protagonist.

Full Review | Mar 1, 2016

A sort of wikifreaks noir cyber-thriller involving hacker geeks high on Ritalin, a sour female spy with a malfunctioning uterus, multiple hacker wars that may have confounded even Julian Assange and something to do with four lost and found cubes of sugar.

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Fast-paced yet hopelessly generic...

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‘I Am: Celine Dion’ Review: The Iconic Singer Opens Up About Stiff Person Syndrome in a Superb, Intimate Documentary

Ryan lattanzio, deputy editor, film.

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“Her very best” is so many things more than “ My Heart Will Go On ” or insert-any-other-single you most remember the Quebecoise singer for. “I traveled the world and didn’t see anything,” Dion tells the camera, in the presence of two of her three sons she shares with her late husband and producer René Angélil, who died in 2016. (Angélil is surprisingly not much of a presence in this film , which, instead of a panoply of home movies or other cinematic elegies, only reveals his presence through brief footage of his funeral.) What she means to say is that her culture-transcending song craft has taken her around the globe, but with each tour stop never came one of the revelatory travel moments that affect us all. She was instead living a life in dressing rooms and on stages, all the while concealing an anomalous neurological condition that’s now prevented her from singing as she once did with such gravitas.

“I Am: Celine Dion” rarely looks backward, only waiting until well into the film’s under-two-hour running time to introduce archival footage of her childhood and early career days on TV and eventually in arenas. She reminds us that she didn’t create or invent herself; she rather is just the person she always was, and not some persona conjured for the stage or screen. Dion’s flippant sense of humor is preserved here, as she’s just as willing to laugh at herself and her condition as she is the circumstances around her. You sometimes yearn for the context of testimony from her family — she has 13 siblings! — but are reminded of the power of documentary when it leaves such platitudes behind. Not since Asif Kapadia’s “Amy” has a documentary looked so closely and with so few holds barred at a singer/songwriter made iconic by a spotlight that has also ended up shrouding her.

But a fan reminded her that “we’re not here for the apples; we’re here for the tree.” And indeed, “I Am: Celine Dion” graces us with plenty of footage of Dion’s ballad-belting, even while she reveals that past moments where she perhaps shook the mic in a sound-checking gesture or feigned a cough, she was fighting back extreme pain in her body due to what was a then-unknown illness warring within her.

Dion participates in Taylor’s extraordinarily intimate and revealing documentary in an often disheveled state, or at least without the makeup or adornment of the many beautiful clothes she keeps stored in a warehouse, revisiting with a bright-eyed nostalgia. But she never feels sorry for herself or collapses into self-pity, instead insisting that, god damn it, she will crawl back onto that stage if she has to.

“I Am: Celine Dion” premieres on Prime Video Tuesday, June 25.

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Review: ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ is the rare prequel that outclasses the original for mood

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To watch “A Quiet Place: Day One” is to recalibrate your senses — not to the alien horror movie you know is in store but rather, to the intimate human drama it hangs onto, long after a lesser film would have given up. Among its lovely images, there’s the distant New York skyline seen beyond a Queens cemetery, a sight familiar to anyone who’s ever driven into town. There are the resigned glances of terminal patients in hospice. Mostly, we take in the exquisite face of Lupita Nyong’o as Sam, a young person in the prime of life stricken with cancer, who carries the unfairness of her situation just below the surface.

Sirens and fighter-jet shrieks ease their way into the sound mix, as they must in any prequel to 2018’s civilization-ending “A Quiet Place” and 2020’s more-of-the-same “A Quiet Place Part II.” But even as smoke and white ash fill the air (best to leave those Sept. 11 memories at home) and pissed-off creatures rampage like cattle down the city’s glass and steel canyons, there’s an unusual commitment to the darker fringes of postapocalyptic moviemaking. It’s less “Furiosa” and more “The Road.”

Sam is already prepared to die, lending the film an impressively bleak tone and sparing us the rote machinations of hardy-band-of-survivors plotting. All she wants to do is walk — very quietly — approximately 120 blocks north from Chinatown to Harlem, where she can scarf the last slices of pizza from Patsy’s before such delicacies become ancient history.

It’s a refreshing, near-radical concept to build a studio film around, and as Sam sets off, a tote bag on her arm and her black-and-white support cat Frodo beside her, you may be reminded of that other woman-and-feline survival story, “Alien,” stripped to the bone. (One also wonders, glumly, how NYC’s thousands of dogs fared with these tetchy sound-averse invaders.)

The person pulling all this off is director-screenwriter Michael Sarnoski, last seen evincing a recognizably human performance from Nicolas Cage as a crumpled, broken chef in “Pig,” which was also about facing a kind of personal catastrophe. (He’s now made two of the most downbeat foodie films in a row.) Sarnoski, who wrote the story with original creator John Krasinski, does fine enough by the James Cameron-like action sequences that probably were mandated by the powers that be: chase sequences in flooded subway tunnels — yuck — and abandoned landmarks.

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But he’s stronger on personal moments, such as the finest take of Djimon Hounsou ’s career, consumed in spiraling guilt and choking back a scream after accidentally killing someone for panicking too loud. There’s also a business-suited Brit (Joseph Quinn, last seen shredding to Metallica in “Stranger Things”) who only wants to join Sam on her pizza quest. With a minimum of words, we somehow understand that he’s devoted way too much of his time on the planet to not connecting with other human beings, and he may only get this one day to make up for it.

You can take or leave a subplot about Sam’s writing career and thwarted dreams. For this viewer, there’s more poetry in her stopping at an abandoned bookstore, as we all would do, picking up a used paperback (fittingly, Octavia E. Butler ’s 1987 sci-fi novel “Dawn,” which you sense she has read) and sniffing the pages: a history captured in a scent. She too is savoring humanity’s last vestiges. This is a film that seems to know a lot about future psychology. May we never know such mournfulness outside of an ambitious summer blockbuster.

'A Quiet Place: Day One'

Rating: PG-13, for terror and violent content/bloody images Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes Playing: In wide release June 28.

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Joshua Rothkopf is film editor of the Los Angeles Times. He most recently served as senior movies editor at Entertainment Weekly. Before then, Rothkopf spent 16 years at Time Out New York, where he was film editor and senior film critic. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Sight and Sound, Empire, Rolling Stone and In These Times, where he was chief film critic from 1999 to 2003.

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'I Am: Celine Dion' Review: A Rare, Searing Look at an Icon Facing the Fight of Her Life

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The Big Picture

• I Am: Celine Dion is not a typical music doc, focusing on her battle with Stiff Person Syndrome.
• Director Irene Taylor highlights Dion's journey post-diagnosis, revealing her vulnerability.
• The documentary showcases Dion's determination to overcome SPS, offering intimate and raw insight.

The voice of a generation, Celine Dion has graced the music and film industries in equal measure , singing award-winning ballads like Titanic 's theme song "My Heart Will Go On" and "The Power of Love." With a career that spans over four decades, Dion's greatest wish has always been to sing on stage for millions of people. Yet her present-day circumstances have led her to abstain from her life's main conductor: her vocals. I Am: Celine Dion follows the musician after she begins treatment for SPS (Stiff Person Syndrome), a rare condition that causes muscle stiffness and painful spasms that can even affect one's ability to walk. Despite her diagnosis preventing her from performing or belting out, the artist holds onto the hope of overcoming this roadblock and touring again. This documentary pulls the curtain back on Dion in her most vulnerable state and makes an unfiltered portrait .

I Am: Celine Dion (2024)

'i am: celine dion' is not a music doc, but a doc about a music icon.

This Prime Video original, directed by Oscar-winner Irene Taylor , doesn't settle for the usual format of a music documentary . Instead of offering a linear breakdown of the artist's journey from humbler beginnings to achieving megastardom, it presents archival footage of Dion throughout the years to showcase the level of grandeur that she upholds and the dire turn posed by her neurological disorder . Fans who are used to seeing her in full glitz and glam are now getting to witness the musician replace Jimmy Choo heels with the coziest pair of socks that she can find in her drawer. Fresh-faced and in the comfort of her own home, she makes the audience her guests, inviting them to see a side of her that was very much guarded from the public eye.

The documentary offers occasional trips down memory lane , from Dion and her 13 siblings enjoying winter in Montreal during her childhood to her and husband/manager Réne Angélil taking care of their three sons while they were still toddlers, but it is clear that the film's focus is on her current battle with SPS. No longer putting on a show, Dion occupies her time with rehabilitation exercises, regular check-ups, and side projects (the most recent one being her participation in the 2023 rom-com Love Again ).

Director Irene Taylor Calls the Shots, But It Is Dion That Commands the Story

Although Taylor is the person behind the camera calling the shots, boldly zooming in on the subject even in moments that feel too invasive to record, the artist takes full ownership of her story . Through her perspective alone, without loved ones chiming in to share their thoughts and feelings, the film bounces between the before and the after. Whenever an old video of Dion pops up on the screen, showing her effortlessly hitting the right notes to tracks like "It's All Coming Back to Me Now," it is usually followed up by footage of the icon in the present, breaking out in song and struggling to keep her voice from cracking. Seeing her primary instrument miss the mark is gut-wrenching and unfair, especially for someone who has always been very professional about her craft. The musician even jokes that she envies rock stars with raspy vocals from all the drinking and smoking, because she has always been very meticulous about hydrating herself and getting proper sleep in order to keep her performance intact.

The artist also took advantage of this opportunity to come clean about the lead-up to her hiatus , sharing that she had already been experiencing symptoms for 17 years before she was properly diagnosed. Her greatest hurdle was having to cancel a show that people paid to attend, oftentimes resorting to taking pills and high dosages of Valium when there were signs of pain or vocal distress even before she went out onstage. As someone who strives for perfection, it was hard for the singer to lie to fans about having a cold, when in reality she was going through something far worse. Only in late 2022 did she make an announcement about her exit from the spotlight through a video that she shared on social media (which is also shown in the doc).

Although the decision to have Dion helming the documentary makes it an intimate viewing, especially when she dives into memories of concerts and epic fashion looks, it also restricts the film from having the insight of staff that are playing a major role in her treatment . Despite them working with her on a daily basis on her path to recovery, there are only a few instances where a physician explains the medical implications of her disorder while talking to her. The project would've become even more purposeful with their input, given that the condition isn't as well-known.

'I Am: Celine Dion' Is a Raw Portrait

Still, I Am: Celine Dion is a piercing portrayal that doesn't shy away from making audiences feel like a fly on the wall . Later on in the film, viewers witness Dion ecstatically leaving the studio after recording a new song when she is surprised by a spasm in her foot. In a matter of minutes, the spasm takes over her entire body, which leaves her motionless and in utter agony. With the help of the people around her, the artist is able to regain her composure and, instead of tearing up, she decides to break out in song, not letting her health get in the way of her going back to being the fearless and captivating performer that she once was. Dion's determination is palpable, with her even saying, "If I can't run, I'll walk. If I don't walk, I'll crawl," when referring to her touring prospects for the future.

A documentary that is raw and powered by a beloved artist , Taylor's film isn't a lighthearted watch (although it does make the audience laugh here and there in between an ugly cry) but it is captivating from start to finish. By weaving in old footage with present-day shots, it far exceeds expectations in terms of formatting and structure attributed to music docs. It also benefits from Dion being fully committed to exposing her vulnerability and inviting fans to see past the glamour. Although additional perspectives from staff would've benefited the end product to a further extent, I Am: Celine Dion does its title justice, giving its main subject a platform to shine despite her circumstances.

'I Am: Celine Dion' is a captivating documentary about an artist fighting for her recovery.

• It doesn't follow the traditional layout of a music documentary.
• Irene Taylor invests in close-ups that allow Dion to be the focus of her own narrative.
• The documentary allows for viewers to connect with the singer as she battles a rare diagnosis.
• The film would've been even more purposeful with more insights from doctors working closely with Dion.

I Am: Celine Dion is now available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.

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‘Last Summer’ Review: A Shocking Affair to Remember

Few directors get as deeply under the skin as Catherine Breillat, a longtime provocateur who tests the limits of what the world thinks women should do and say and be.

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By Manohla Dargis

When Anne, the elegant, enigmatic protagonist in Catherine Breillat’s “Last Summer,” walks in a room, she holds your gaze as formidably as she holds those of everyone in this startling, perverse French movie. A lawyer, wife, mother and sister, Anne likes sheath dresses and high heels, tasteful antiques and a sense of order. She’s serenely self-possessed, and everything in her life is just so, which suggests that she’s either invincible or waiting to break. Both are in play when she abandons herself in a shocking, recklessly consuming affair.

Few directors get as deeply under the skin as Breillat, a longtime, reliably interesting provocateur who tests the limits of what the world thinks women should do and say and be. Breillat is interested in complexity, not orthodoxy (feminist or otherwise), in autonomy and subjugation, and in all the ways that pleasure and desire can take violent hold of minds and bodies. She was in her 20s when she directed her first feature, “ A Real Young Girl ” (1976), about a teenager’s sexual coming-of-age. It’s a messy, jolting movie; there aren’t many filmmakers who shock you like Breillat does and with such supremely natural ease.

Anne, played by a superb Léa Drucker, seems wholly satisfied in her world. She and her loving, attentive husband, Pierre (Olivier Rabourdin), have two sweet girls, and live in a large, handsome suburban home. She’s close to her sister, Mina (Clotilde Courau), and Anne’s work seems satisfying and perhaps even important: She advocates for victims of sexual abuse and in cases involving parental custodianship. Outwardly, her life looks ideal, if maybe overly comfortable, and its frictionless surfaces — especially in a French movie about upper-class people — seem primed for disruption. Even so, nothing about her suggests that she will soon lose herself in an affair with her 17-year-old stepson, Théo (Samuel Kircher).

When “Last Summer" opens, Théo is living with his mother and has just been arrested. Pierre has decided to bring his son back home with him, a decision he explains to Anne while the couple are in their bedroom, an intimate setting that is as meaningful as it is banal. As Pierre hurriedly packs his bag, Breillat discreetly pushes the camera closer to him as he and an offscreen Anne talk. The scene is brief, and seemingly purely informational. Yet right after Pierre says that Théo punched a teacher, Breillat cuts to Anne who’s busily changing her clothes. Her dress is hiked over her face, exposing her trim body and pretty bra.

Within minutes, Breillat has introduced both her characters and their world with brisk narrative economy and a sly, telegraphing conflation of sex and violence: the bedroom, the couple, the son, the punch, the lingerie. The movie has scarcely begun yet everything, including the complacency and first stirrings of trouble, is in place. These stirrings abruptly turn into klaxons when Théo arrives shortly thereafter, and Anne goes to speak to him. The moment that he appears onscreen — he’s on the bed in his room, his messy dark curls cascading over his face — it’s clear that he is this movie’s version of Chekhov’s gun.

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‘yellowstone’ alum kevin costner on wanting ‘horizon’ to succeed at box office: “my ego would like that”, breaking news.

‘I Am: Celine Dion’ Review: A Raw And Gut-Wrenching Documentary Reveals A Music Superstar Through Her Most Challenging Physical Trauma

By Pete Hammond

Pete Hammond

Awards Columnist/Chief Film Critic

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Hollywood is full of the movies, many made in the 1940s and ’50s, of major musical stars who go through personal trauma their fans don’t see as they eventually emerge triumphantly performing again on stage. Susan Hayward practically made a career of playing them in films like I’ll Cry Tomorrow and With a Song in My Heart. So did Doris Day in Love Me or Leave Me. In a way, watching I Am: Celine Dion I thought of those films about great female stars who overcame the odds and persevered to return to glory in their extraordinary musical careers — a story made for a Hollywood ending. The difference here is in using the documentary format, allowing unfettered access, and in showing life as it happens in unexpected moments, Dion’s story is still being written, her “triumphant” Hollywood comeback still a work in progress at best as she invites us into her struggles, her hopes, her optimism, and her heartbreaks with no artifice in sight.

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Given the keys to 800 hours of previously unseen archival video and photos over the last 50 years from Dion’s vault, Taylor had the goods to make a feel-good documentary that would be a love letter from the star to her fans. It would cover her Vegas residency at Caesars Palace, her world tour, her life at home with her kids, and her storied career as the youngest of 14 kids growing up in Quebec who would become a superstar beloved around the world.

Make no mistake, the vintage Dion is on display here with generous use of past concert footage. The archival material is also well-used throughout, including her marriage to the love of her life and career-long manager Rene Angelil. There is footage shown of his funeral as well. The sacrifices of her mother and father for their family of 13 children is documented too. Her home life with her sons, and beloved dog Bear, is all on view. In many ways this is a gift, something she can still give to her fans.

But this film is ultimately about resiliency in the face of one of life’s cruelest tricks, taking away the engine that drives Dion’s existence. “My voice was always the conductor of my whole life,” she says, and suddenly it was in crisis. She talks of the need for pills to get through a performance, first one, then two, then five. Over the course of the year of filming Dion ventured out from her Las Vegas mansion only three times. We see them all as she comforts herself in a visit to her past in the incredible 12,000-foot warehouse that contains every item, gowns, shoes (so many shoes ) , childhood ballerina outfit, you name it. The camera is also there when Dion goes to a sound studio to fulfil a commitment to finish a movie, her first, she did before the pandemic. She now must dub the French version of that film, a romantic comedy called Love Again, as circumstances have changed in her life since filming it.

And then there is the stunning sequence that captures Dion back in the recording studio for the first time in three years, attempting to sing a new song and going through all the pain, second guessing, perfectionism, frustration and finally satisfaction that managed to get to a special result. Then it all goes dark when shortly after, cameras still rolling, she feels a muscle spasm in her foot, her body stiffens up, and her sports physical therapists go to work laying her down on the table face-down in unimaginable pain and body breakdown. Warning: this scene, as raw as it gets, is excruciating to watch, especially knowing that no one there, including the filmmaker, would know how it would turn out. Was Dion going to die with the cameras close on her face and still rolling? It feels invasive, but this is a person who for a year put her hair back in a bun, wore little or no makeup, and insisted the cameras show her as she is — now versus then.

Forty minutes later the episode was over, and she gets up. Her therapist cues one of her favorite songs (“Who I Am” by Wyn Starks) and Dion sings along, ever the performer even in a moment like this one. It is the new reality of her life, and one still waiting for the happy ending we see in those showbiz stories where there is always a comeback. “I always have a plan B,” she says. “I still see myself dance and sing. If I can’t run, I’ll walk. If I can’t walk, I’ll crawl. But I won’t stop. I won’t stop.” Hopefully there will be a sequel for Celine Dion.

Producers are Stacy Lorts, Tom Mackay, Julie Begey Seureau, and Taylor.

Title: I Am: Celine Dion Distributor: Amazon MGM Studios Release Date: June 25, 2024 (Prime Video) Director: Irene Taylor With: Celine Dion Rating: PG Running time: 1 hr 42 min

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Who Am I Now? (2021)

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Release date: 03 February, 2023

Who am i movie.

Based on the novel “Ko Aham” by Ashok Jamnani, a philosophy student considers existential questions that lead him on an introspective quest. Bhavitavya, a philosophy student, is full of questions about life. He embarks on a journey of self-discovery, wondering who he is and what his life means. Shot on ...  the banks of the Narmada River, Who Am I is a picturesque examination of the human condition.

Chetan Sharma

Who Am I – Official Trailer | Chetan Sharma, Rishika Chandani, Surendra Rajan & Shashie Vermaa

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