One of Ingmar Bergman’s eleven favorite films, this is a personal portrayal of the relationship between sisters at the forefront of political struggle in severely different ways. Inspired by Baader-Meinhof’s Gudrun Ensslin and her sister Christine, the film won the Golden Lion at Venice in 1981.
Dreams are realized and promises are broken in this monumental film. Marrying the swooning heights of melodrama to a chronicle of European socialism, Margarethe von Trotta’s decades-spanning epic speaks volumes about the families, friends, and lovers who were torn apart by a divided Germany.
Radicalism is not only an anarchic bank heist—for Margarethe von Trotta, it is hospitality and intimacy too. Inspired by a feminist movement that set up antiauthoritarian childcare centers in West Germany, the director forges a remarkable drama from leftist struggle and unlikely solidarity.