Abschied von gestern

Anita G. is 22, from a Jewish family, and a migrant from East to West Germany. She is sentenced to probation after stealing a cardigan. Working in an office and also selling language learning LPs, she starts up a relationship with her boss and embezzles from the company. Anita tries in vain to enrol in university in Frankfurt. Her romantic liaison with a married government official also flounders. When she becomes pregnant, Anita, who by then is wanted by the police, turns herself in … With his look at the odyssey of a woman adrift, Alexander Kluge gave a clear signal to launch the “Young German Cinema”. He used the incessant running of this homeless woman to integrate numerous particles of reality into his film – up to and including a performance by Fritz Bauer, Hessen state attorney general and the initiator of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials. Enriched with intertitles, documentary segments and third-party texts, Yesterday Girl systematically consummated the break with filmmaking conventions. In 1966, film critic Uwe Nettelbeck wrote “Kluge does not formulate solid insights, but rather incites reflection”. That approach was rewarded with the Silver Lion at the Venice film festival.