Krieg der Frauen (2006)

Sophie, a single mother and banker, and Katharina, a homemaker and mother, have known each other for ages, but eventually lost touch. By chance, they meet again, and Katharina persuades Sophie to move into her neighborhood. Over the years, however, their views and lifestyles have developed in very different directions. Sophie believes that in today’s world, it is perfectly possible to have a successful career and still be a good mother, while Katharina is convinced of the opposite. In her view, children receive enough love and support only when their mother is there to care for them at all times. Even so, she sends her children to kindergarten in the mornings and then cleans her psychiatrist husband’s office. There, a patient mistakes her for a professional cleaner, which gives her pause. She talks with her husband about her newly reunited friend Sophie, and although she had been very happy to find her again after all those years, she realizes that their philosophies of life no longer align at all. She can hardly stand that Sophie handles everything with her money instead of getting more personally involved. This is especially apparent in the volunteer work at the daycare center their children attend together, where Sophie’s lack of hands-on involvement reflects particularly badly on her. Katharina’s contempt for Sophie grows, and their friendship increasingly turns into hostility. Their conversations become more and more dominated by digs at each other’s private lives and parenting. After a heated argument that also calls Sophie’s professional life into question, the war between them breaks out in the open. To make Sophie move out of the apartment above hers, Katharina bangs loudly on the ceiling at night so Sophie cannot sleep. In retaliation, Sophie makes an unpleasant racket while Katharina’s husband has patients in his office, which is also in the building. Next, the women bring out the heavy artillery and sic the public broadcasting fee authority, the tax office, and the youth welfare office on each other. Katharina also takes out her frustrations on her husband, eventually accusing him of having an affair with a patient. After another argument about this, she promptly throws him out of the apartment. When she regrets it, she seeks comfort from Sophie, and the two of them talk things through. Their mutual respect returns, and they come to recognize their own mistakes. After three weeks, Katharina’s husband returns, and Sophie politely turns down her boss’s offer to put together an even bigger deal so she can spend more time with her children again.