Das höchste Gut einer Frau ist ihr Schweigen

Work and life in a foreign country – a masterful study of immigration.

With faith in a better life, Maria M. follows her husband to Frankfurt. But she quickly begins to suffer from great loneliness. As her small apartment feels more and more like a prison, the once hopeful woman descends into misery. Gertrud Pinkus wanted to film a documentary about immigrant women from southern Italy, but quickly discovered that her potential protagonists wanted to remain anonymous. Although Maria M. tells her own story on the soundtrack, it’s other southern Italian immigrants who act out her life in front of the camera. The film thereby acquires a new dimension, since the experiences of the protagonist could also have been those of the non-professional actors. In 1980, the film was awarded several prizes at the International Film Week Mannheim.

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