Gegenspiel

Maria is eighteen and wants to leave Portugal. In the mid-seventies, the country offers little perspective for a young woman. However, Maria does not want to get married and have children; she wants more from life. As the new decade begins, she moves to Berlin, starts studying, and enters a relationship with a rebellious theater maker, which soon fails. Despite all her plans for an independent life, Maria ultimately finds herself as a wife and mother in the North Rhine-Westphalian countryside, watching her husband Hartmut build his career. For a long time, she adapts to the circumstances, but when her daughter becomes an adult and is about to leave home, Maria makes a decision. Lisbon after the Carnation Revolution, the squatter scene in West Berlin, the German countryside before and after the reunification: Stephan Thome tells a familiar story in striking, tension-filled scenes.