Opening 1 Oct 2009
Directed by:
Susanne Schneider
Writing credits:
Susanne Schneider, Angelika Ani Schromm
Principal actors:
Katharina Schüttler, Iris Berben, Jacques Frantz, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Sophie-Charlotte Kaissling-Dopff
Judith Muller (Iris Berben) keeps her secret buried deep within the root cellar while she attempts to create a second chance for herself in life. She has a husband and two children and is very active in helping the community, although she never feels safe. Unfortunately, her photo at a demonstration lands in the media, which marks the beginning of her undoing. Her daughter Alice (Katharinia Schüttler) appears out of nowhere. Filled with anger and self-pity, jealous of the new family, as well as dealing with abandonment issues, she challenges her mother with no other thought but to destroy her current life.
Director and screenwriter Susanne Schneider leads us into unfamiliar territory: the life of a political terrorist. The focus on Judith, who is dealing with guilt and lying, shows the burden she carries. Judith believed in changing the system and thought it could only by radical means, which meant she had to give up everything. Does she deserve a second chance? Or should she pay for what she did? It strikes a note that this film coincides with the recent arrest of the RAF terrorist Verena Becker in Berlin, who possibly killed West Germany’s Chief Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback in 1977 for political reasons. (Shelly Schoeneshoefer)
