Franky Five Star (2023)

Franky—whose real name is Elena—is a young, rather insecure woman in her early twenties who shares an apartment in Bremen with her best friend, Katja, a nurse. She works at a beverage store and is uncertain about her future, especially since she feels pressured by her mother, who wants her to go to university and have a steady boyfriend. She has had very little sexual experience and is unhappily in love with Roman, a musician who lives in a neighboring apartment. The film depicts two worlds: the outside world and the young woman’s inner world. Her inner world is a rundown former five-star hotel, inhabited by Franky as well as Frau Franke (the receptionist), Ella (the housekeeper), Lenny (a childlike hotel resident), and Frank (the bellhop). The four characters in the inner-world hotel are extreme manifestations of different aspects of Franky’s personality. An elevator connects the hotel to the outside world. Depending on which of the characters takes the elevator into the outside world, Franky’s life repeatedly gets thrown off balance in a corresponding way.