Sunday, July 08, 2007

Prinzessinnenbad (2007)

We went yesterday to the movies in Kreuzberg, where this documentary is set. My first thought when I got out of the cinema was how little I know about the kind of world interpretation that happens just about where I was walking. The plot: there isn't much of one actually. The camera (and I wonder what person behind it, probably somebody much less morally challenged than me) follows three 15-year-old girls through their routine, through their growing-up. Lots of relationships and lots of experienced judgment on different kinds of men (I wasn't aware, for instance, that Germans are seriously out of fashion), no minced manners certainly (telling your ma "if you marry, i move out"), a demanding and annoyed attitude to life. I perceived it as radically different from my growing up which was so safe and sheltered. Yet - there seems to exist a parallel between them ("the kids today are exposed to too much. [The kind of bitch-vocab they use] Me at age 8 I was still playing with dolls. Well maybe 7") and me here (having the impression I still did with 15 - or do I now?). I guess what struck me most is how distinctly the lines are drawn. All three girls are amazingly conscious about what they won't be able to do, considering the lack of abitur, in fact it seemed to me they know this before they start making plans in the first place. It leaves the spectator to wonder whether to agree with them or not. In somma, a good milieu movie.