Trümmermädchen - Die Geschichte der Charlotte Schumann (2021)

The film is set in postwar Germany and, against this backdrop, explores the role of women. Charlotte (Lotte, Charly) Schumann is pregnant by Ludwig, a returning soldier and the son of a textile manufacturer. He refuses to stand by her or their child, but keeps seeking her out. She sees a way forward in a so-called young ladies’ course, where actress Gloria Deven supposedly teaches young women at the Proto theater how to win men over. In reality, however, Gloria’s aim is to confront the five young participants unflinchingly with the truth about their situation, then encourage their emancipation and independence and make them less dependent on men. In the first class, titled “The Origin of All Evil,” Gloria puts forward the theory that men abolished matriarchy throughout history in order to turn women into symbols. Corinna admits that her father is having a sexual relationship with her and flatters her by calling her his queen. Gloria makes it clear that Corinna is not the one behaving wrongly; her father is, and Corinna must report him to protect her younger sisters. Gloria offers to accompany the young woman to the police. Gloria herself is supposed to be elevated into an idol: American director John Miller offers her the leading role in a feature film set in postwar Germany, intended to create a new female role model for the German people: “A Simple Girl.” To be hired, however, Gloria needs clearance from the denazification tribunal before the audition. She appeared in Nazi propaganda films, but claims that during the final year of the war she performed only at a small theater that no longer exists. There are no witnesses to confirm this. The second class, titled “The Gardens of the Soul,” reveals that control over desire leads to power. Gloria puts Charlotte into a trance and gets her to explain that ever since an experience during the war, she has not dared to masturbate: during an air raid, Charlotte was masturbating when she was buried under rubble and found by her mother. Her mother then stopped speaking to her until the end of the war. Gloria influences Lotte’s unconscious so that she dares to embrace her own pleasure again. In the third class, titled “The Truth and Nothing but the Truth,” Karin’s story comes to light: she has twins by a man who left her before the children were born. Because the children kept asking about their father, Karin invented one—at Christmas, she wrote to them as their “Daddy” and told them he was in the Gulag. She told men that the children were refugees she was caring for, so as not to jeopardize their interest in her. Gloria persuades Karin to tell the children the truth so that she no longer has to feel weak and guilty. This approach divides the group: Pauline supports Gloria, but Charlotte and Corinna think Karin knows best what is good for her children. The argument escalates in the dressing room: Corinna outs Pauline as a lesbian and insults her viciously. Gloria puts an end to the ensuing physical fight. In the fourth class, on the subject of “The Reinvention of the Wheel,” the five participants are confronted with men who, under the supervision of American soldiers at the Proto, are made to watch a film about Nazi crimes in the concentration camps and are not allowed to leave the room. The young women have dressed to look attractive and have also been given cocaine by Gloria, making them very self-assured. Charlotte sneaks off with Ludwig into the screening room, where she tells him he must now pleasure her orally, just as she has done for him. He agrees. They are interrupted by Ludwig’s father, who slaps his son and takes him away. The women continue partying without the men. Suddenly Hans is in the room: a returning soldier with an arm stump and Gloria’s former husband. Gloria’s real name is Grete. She wants to hide him, since otherwise the Americans will take him to a prisoner-of-war camp. The theme of the next class, “And I Will Put Enmity Between You and the Woman,” is introduced by a scene in which Evi does not defend herself against men trying to kiss her in the street. Gloria teaches the women to arouse men through manual stimulation of their penises and flatter them, but to stop before they climax so the women can retain power over them. Pauline says that after the occupying forces arrived, an American soldier raped her anally. The women now go out ready to fight, spray feminist slogans on the walls and pour red paint over men. Evi is particularly conspicuous in this. Lotte, who was timid and stammered at first, has become an emancipated woman, and the others also have plans other than marriage: Corinna wants to become a reporter, and Karin wants to study politics. In the next class, “The Other Sex,” Hans tells the young women about Gloria’s past: the two of them were married, but Gloria (Grete) divorced him when he was drafted into military service. In the penultimate class, “From Belief in Goodness,” Gloria stages an experiment: Evi tests Ludwig’s faithfulness to Charlotte, who is now engaged to him, while the women watch from the auditorium. Ludwig fails, and the women beat him up. Gloria threatens Hans, telling him to get out of the Proto or he will be next. He strangles Gloria, and the girls tie him to the bed. Gloria performs an abortion on Charlotte. The young women have meanwhile falsely told the authorities that they saw Gloria at the theater during the final year of the war, so she is now allowed to audition. Charlotte overhears Gloria exploiting the course participants’ stories in front of Miller at the audition, recounting their most intimate experiences and imitating the way they speak. Miller is delighted, but Charlotte feels betrayed. Now very self-assured, Charlotte lures Miller to the Proto and tries to get the role intended for Gloria, but fails. In the final class, “The Queen’s Child,” Hans tells Charlotte, who is tied to a chair, more about Gloria. Her father had sex with her, her stepmother hated her, and her father brought her to the city, where Hans showed her the Proto and thereby saved her. Despite her appearances in propaganda films, she was sent to a concentration camp, where she became the commandant’s lover and later his wife. Hans is sure that Gloria will go with him to Argentina. When he refuses to let her take the film role instead, she shoots him. When Gloria ultimately turns down the role, John Miller offers it to Charlotte. He seeks her out to make the offer while she is clearing away war rubble with other women. She now rejects the role because it would force her back into the traditional female position she has just left behind; that is also why Gloria turned it down. The age of men is over. While Pauline, Evi, Karin and Corinna have become engaged, Charlotte has left the traditional female role behind.