Die Alleinseglerin (1987)

Literary scholar Christine inherits her father’s sailboat. The Dragon would need a complete overhaul to fetch a good price if sold. Christine, a single mother, does not want to keep it, since her modest salary would not cover its upkeep and restoration. However, when no buyer has turned up by winter, she decides to wait until spring to sell it. In the meantime, she plans to get the boat into shape to secure a better price. At her institute, she is offered the chance to begin a doctoral thesis. She takes it, but increasingly runs into difficulties. Her ex-husband Werner, who sometimes takes their young son for the weekend, goes to Mongolia for an extended work assignment. Christine works on her thesis at night, but makes little progress. At weekends, she tries to renovate the boat. She also begins an affair with Georg, a keyboard player, but it falls apart when she chooses working on the boat over spending a weekend together. Her friend Veronika, who is also a single mother, supports her and looks after Christine’s son, who is becoming increasingly estranged from his mother. Her friend Kutte helps with the boat’s renovation, and in the spring they are finally able to launch the sailboat successfully. Restoring the boat has cost Christine a great deal of money. Her doctoral thesis, intended as a contribution to a larger project, is rejected by her professor as poorly thought out. Christine herself is reassigned to the archives at a lower salary and is therefore unable to do any more academic work for the time being. Werner, now back from Mongolia, would lend her 2,000 marks to help with her financial difficulties, but when he learns that Christine would spend the money on the boat, he leaves her for good. Defiantly, she also turns down a purchase offer from a macho, swaggering man. She wants to keep the boat. For the first time, she sails alone on the Müritz. When the boat runs aground on a sandbank and capsizes, Christine climbs onto the boat, which is tilted in the water. She begins to laugh.