Girl in a Boot

The girl is Ulla, a spunky East Berlin fräulein, a little bored with her job at the Engineering Works and her long-standing boyfriend; given a lift one day by Thomas, a suave chef at the Swiss Embassy, she finds herself more than ready to indulge in a little nocturnal East-West relations. Thomas has taken to nipping across Checkpoint Charlie for pizzas at his favourite restaurant, so Ulla suggests he take her for a quick 'Ausflug' to the West, secreted in the boot of his Merc... But, oh yes, things go wrong. Shot with all the panache of a McDonalds advertisement with music to match, the movie adds up to little more than an unimaginative love story that reduces the traumas of life in the 'divided city' to casuistic cliché. Sympto- matically, the only enlivening diversion is provided by two minor performances: Peter Schiff as Ulla's concerned Communist father, and Fassbinder regular Brigitte Mira as a toilet attendant.