A divorced father picks up his eight year old daughter Lea. It seems pretty much like every second weekend, but after a while Lea can’t help feeling that something isn’t right. So begins a fateful journey.

The Oscar-shortlisted German Short “Everything Will Be Okay (Alles wird gut)” touched me in a particularly personal fashion. As a father, I found it wrenching to process this chronicle of a scheduled visit between a divorced dad and his young daughter as it rapidly disintegrates into a dark and ominous journey of utter desperation and debilitating sadness.

Though I am not divorced, I certainly identify with the overwhelming love that Michael (a searingly heartbreaking portrayal from Simon Schwarz) has for his baby girl, Lea (8-year-old Julia Pointner in a stunningly moving performance beyond her years). Without reservation I can not condone the extremes to which this deeply troubled man goes to secure his child for his very own. Still, I absolutely comprehend the all-consuming emotions invested in doing whatever a parent must to care for and protect those whom you love literally more than you love your own life.

At different moments in the film, little Lea is assured by first her father and later her mother that “Everything will be okay”. Yet in the wake of the spirit-shattering final scene we have just witnessed, we are sure only of this: While it is a comfort well intentioned, for this conflicted child caught in the crossfire of scathingly contemptuous parental warfare, it is a promise that can never truly be honored.