Malou (1981)

Malou is Hannah’s mother, who is now deceased. Hannah is around thirty and married to Martin Rethmann, an architect from Berlin. She works as a language teacher at an adult education center. Dissatisfied with herself and her marriage, Hannah looks to the story of Malou’s life and love for the reasons behind it. Before long, her interest in her mother’s life becomes a true obsession, a fixed idea she can no longer escape. The fascination Malou still exerts over Hannah is rooted in the sheer fact of her life. There is ample evidence of a varied existence: photo albums, silver bowls and suitcases. At the same time, Hannah fears nothing more than repeating her mother’s one crucial mistake: becoming too dependent on a man. Malou had been utterly fixated on the gallant charmer Paul Kahn, whom she once loved unconditionally and who became her husband. In this way, her dead mother had defined her self-worth solely through the recognition of others, especially the men who had once surrounded her. Flashback: Malou is born in southern France in 1905 and grows up in poverty. The man who soon became her “prince in shining armor” and married her gave her social status, financial security and a sense of belonging: Paul Kahn. She followed the Jewish merchant to Germany and stayed by his side after 1933, when Jews were no longer welcome there. Their path first led to the Netherlands, and later to Argentina. But the marriage did not last, and Malou, who had never learned to stand on her own two feet, felt helpless and empty when her love fell apart. She began drinking, went downhill and ended up an emotional wreck in a foreign land in South America, in Buenos Aires. Hannah sees parallels between Malou’s life and her own present circumstances, and is determined to avoid the danger of becoming so dependent. She witnessed Malou’s physical and emotional decline at close quarters, and, in her own marriage to Martin, sees the risk that Malou’s story could repeat itself. Hannah therefore begins delving ever deeper into Malou’s life, in order to understand her mother’s story and draw the necessary conclusions for herself. Despite the emancipation this brings, Hannah does not want to take this path of self-discovery and self-determination without her husband. She knows it will be a difficult journey, especially since her mother never taught her anything other than to follow, in matters involving men, the same misguided path she herself had taken. In the end, Hannah realizes that the journey back into Malou’s life may also be a journey into her own self, her present and her future. At least now she knows what she does not want.