1 + 1 = 3 (1979)

The pretty, brunette young actress Katarina Arendt lives an independent life, free of social constraints. She is in a relationship with a man and one day accidentally becomes pregnant by him. After giving it some thought and making a rather half-hearted attempt to have an abortion, she decides to have the child, but consciously wants to become a single mother and not marry the father. She does not believe that a relationship with him will stand the test of time, especially since the father initially shows little enthusiasm when it comes to starting a family. She also turns down a proposal from another man, a kind-hearted fellow she meets while on vacation when she is already heavily pregnant, since he, too, seems to be acting for rather selfish reasons. Katarina’s emancipated outlook causes considerable dismay among those around her—above all her authoritarian brother-in-law Robert, but also her long-suffering sister Anna—and their disapproval slowly but surely grows into a full-blown storm of indignation. Yet the stronger the opposition blows in her face, the more convinced Katarina becomes that her decisions are right. After giving birth, from which she excludes all these “sympathetic” and “well-meaning” friends and relatives, she plans to take a job with a small-town theater company. There, in an atmosphere of artistic tolerance, she can bring her newborn along without facing questions or reproachful looks. Katarina’s feminist stance becomes proof that a woman can raise a child alone, and that emancipation can indeed work without men.