DEUTSCHLAND, BLEICHE MUTTER
by Helma Sanders-Brahms, Fiction, 123', 1980, 35mm, GERMANY
With Eva Mattes, Ernst Jacobi, Elisabeth Stepanek, Angelika Thomas, Anna Sanders

At the end of the Thirties, Hans marries Lene. When the war bursts out, he is mobilized and sent to Poland. Lene gives birth to a baby girl, Anna. At the time of the German rout, Lene is obliged to leave her destroyed house and to flee with her daughter. Two American soldiers violate her. Her husband returns from the war and they start living together again, but nothing will ever be as it was before. Sick Lene, loses her taste for life and tries to commit suicide. The sound of baby Anna’s crying, behind the door, makes her give up her grievous decision.

HELMA SANDERS-BRAHMS
Born in 1940 in Emden (Germany), Helma Sanders- Brahms studied theater acting then English and German in Cologne. After working in TV she trains as a film director, she interviews Pasolini, who guides her towards cinema. By the age of 29, she directs her own films. She is a war child and this destiny deeply marked her life story and her inspiration as a author filmmaker, whose Deutschland, Bleiche Mutter has become an emblematic film (Prix du public Créteil 1980). The come a list of twenty films made between 1970 and 1997. Helma Sanders-Brahms received title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (Lang Jack, 1991).Retrospective of her films at Créteil in 1985.