TRÜMMERMÄDCHEN

Hunger, rubble, soldiers returning from war: young Charlotte is pregnant, but her beloved Ludwig doesn’t want her or his child. In order to win him over and avoid the impending disgrace, she signs up for the “Fräuleinkurs” by the actress Gloria Deven who had been an aspiring star under the Nazis, but is now banned from working. But Gloria isn’t interested in reviving the coquetry that had become unnecessary during the war. Instead, she awakens in her students a longing for something that has been denied them for too long: freedom.

Writer-director Oliver Kracht won the prestigious Thomas Strittmatter Prize during this year’s Berlinale for his screenplay that addresses equality between men and women in the Germany of 1946.