Marianne & Juliane

The breakthrough film of the solo career of  this year’s Black Nights Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Margarethe von Trotta takes us to West Germany in the 1970s: Juliane meets her sister Marianne, who has been living underground due to a conviction for a terrorist arson attack. The two are close to one another, but increasingly do not see eye to eye. Not long afterwards, Marianne is arrested; Juliane’s visits to her mostly end acrimoniously. In 1977 Marianne dies in a prison cell; Juliane refuses to believe the official version of events, which claims her sister committed suicide. She wants to expose the truth.

Margarethe von Trotta took her inspiration for "Marianne and Juliane" from the life of RAF terrorist Gudrun Ensslin and her sister Christiane. This is one of the works with which Von Trotta established herself as one of the leading voices of the New German Cinema movement in the 1970’s. It also marked the first time in the history of Venice international film festival when the Golden Lion went to a film directed by a woman.

The film’s screening will be preceeded by an award ceremony where Simone Baumann (German Films) accepts the award on behalf of Margarethe Von Trotta, who couldn’t travel to Estonia due to the epidemological situation.