Under the Pavement Lies the Strand
Known outside Central Europe for her film Germany, Pale Mother (1980), this filmmaker deserves to be rediscovered. Drawing from German literary culture and aesthetics to better explore both recent and ancient European history, her films resonate strongly in our contemporary era.
Recalling the student revolts of 1968 in Germany, Sanders-Brams features two Berlin theater actors who inadvertently get locked in a dressing room for a night, developing a complicity and their political awareness.
Helma Sanders-Brahms
In the 1960s, Helma Sanders-Brahms worked as a caregiver and TV presenter before becoming an assistant to Sergio Corbucci and Pier Paolo Pasolini. She began directing her own films, ranging from fiction to documentaries, and many containing autobiographical elements, in 1969. Her first films tackled themes such as labor, migration, and the situation of women in West Germany. By the late 1970s, she moved away from overtly political subjects to favour more personal stories, intertwining mother-daughter relationships with Germany’s turbulent history. She gained international recognition with Germany, Pale Mother (1980), a film depicting the daily lives of German women during and after the Nazi era. This work established her as a significant figure of New German Cinema, alongside Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, and Wim Wenders.
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