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The German Sisters (1981)

Director: Margarethe von Trotta

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From Time Out Film Guide

Inspired by the cases of Gudrun Ensslin - the Baader-Meinhof terrorist and Stammheim 'suicide' - and her journalist sister, von Trotta once again takes up questions of the roots and potential paths of women's resistance and revolt, creating a disturbing mosaic of personal and state histories around a sisterly relationship of intriguingly contradictory complexity. As in The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, terrorism itself is an offscreen phenomenon; its ramifications at the personal level, and its unlabelled reactionary equivalents, marking the film's painful subject across at least a generation: from two schoolgirls watching film of the concentration camps to a young son almost burned alive in the '80s because of his now notorious parentage. A bold assertion of the continuity of history from the culture most willing to deny it, and fine, accessible political film-making.

Author: PT 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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Cast & crew

Director: Margarethe von Trotta

Producer: Eberhard Junkersdorf

Cast: Jutta Lampe, Barbara Sukowa, Rüdiger Vogler, Doris Schade, Verenice Rudolph, Luc Bondy full cast

Duration: 107 mins

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