Die Spalte

It's not been the greatest start you can't deny, abandoned on a rail track left to die, rescued by an aging lass, then as a toddler she does pass, means you grow up under a pious, stifled eye. An escape when you're fourteen is not a dream, when a pimp takes hold and makes you want to scream, as a queue of men descend, it's really hard to comprehend, the abuse, torment and pain you have to fend. Escape, just sends you back into the clutches, a return to slavery, unwanted touches, but there are people who do care, a taste of freedom is a prayer, though authorities are unforgiving judges.

Gerhild Berktold is outstanding as the preyed upon young Sophie in a world of yesteryear that has by no means moved on if your born into unfortunate circumstances in certain parts of the world today.

... the bogeyman is coming. No pun(s) intended of course. And the bogeyman here is ... well it is society I reckon? Or politics? I guess everyone is to blame. Because no one steps in to help girls that get drawn into a life of smut and sleaze ... where they have to sell their bodies to survive.

Is it enough that this has a theme that is ... well something to applaud the movie for? Or do you think this is along the lines of "reefer madness", where the youth was supposed to be warned against drugs ... well taking them, their appeal and all that. The editing does not help much either. I am not sure, if there are clips/pics missing or if the jump cuts are supposed to be like that ... meant like that ... they sure feel weird and out of place (no pun intended).

There is a lot of nudity in this, but nothing seems to be in this to titilate ... to excite the viewer. Which makes this the warning shot I was talking about ... the pacing is fast and the actors do their best to sell the over the top stuff ... they get as evil and nasty as they can ... it is a movie of its time I reckon. It definitely is not meant to be just ... well lower entertainment (calling it that, in case someone might get offended)

15 year old Sophie escapes from an orphanage to get away from the authoritarian rule of the nuns who run it. On the street she doesn't find freedom but a pimp who picks her up and makes her a prostitute.

Visually the movie goes beyond the limits. One explicitly shown rape scene follows the other. Sophie's body is dragged around, beaten, raped and dragged around again. You get only a view glimpses on her personality hidden behind that surface.

The movie swims on the sexploitation wave that flooded German cinema in the late 60s but it goes beyond a cheap arousement. It's comparable to Ulrike Meinhof's "Bambule", that shows the fate of runaway girls forced into sex work. Meinhof's movie was on TV in May 1970. A few months later Meinhof joined the RAF terror group to fight a society that produced fates like Sophie's. The end of this movie might be seen as a comment on this development. It deliverers for sure the "and storm break loose" urge for violence that overshared German history in the decade to come.

I have only watched this movie once, but when I watched it, it was amazing. My mother is the main actress, Gerhild Berktold. She did not let us, her children, watch the movie, until she thought we were mature enough to see it. The brutality of the situation that Sophie is put in, in the movie, is extremely realistic. Yes, there is violence, aggression, nudity, sex, drugs...all of that. But that was the situation of those times, and a very realistic portrayal.

This movie is hard to come across nowadays. If you do, please enjoy it, and know that the woman in that movie has turned out to be the most amazing woman and the best mother I could have ever asked for.

Thank you

Well maybe not so casual because it is german but pretty standard production. This is really just a german version of 70s blaxxploitation/pimp story. An orphan girl raised by nuns discovers adulthood and things just lead down the path of pimps and sex and a little human trafficking for extra spice.

Don't even know why im writing this. This is not a good movie, even on the value of the sexual content it has nothing going for it. It is boring, acting is bad and sound is horrible. It sounds dubbed over, like they couldn't record the sound live in most scenes. And no, it is not an issue with my copy...

The movie is a collection of implied sex scenes, pimping scenes, escape scenes.. literally same thing you find in 70s american pimp story movies usually out of the bronx. That's all i have to say for it.

Why would you watch this? There is only one reason. The movie title requires it. That's the only reason. Vanity.