Sisters or the Balance of Happiness

A Grimm tale of two little girls lost in the big black forest sets the mood for this disturbing adult fairystory which shows the sisters grown up, apparently successful - one a graduate student, one a brisk executive secretary - but each still frightened and helpless inside. Anna (Gabriel) seems dependent, emotionally and economically, on Maria (Lampe), but successive inward turns of the screw reveal them, Siamese twin-like, in bondage one to the other, so that eventually it's uncertain as to who exploits and dominates whom. The theme of destructive sibling rivalry prefigures von Trotta's following film The German Sisters, though it's less explicitly political, opting for depth rather than breadth. A probe into psychic extremes, it's both tender and violent, delicate and melodramatic.