Health and Happiness

The films are linked by the question of what role community plays within a capitalist-patriarchal order and how change, happiness or health are possible at all. With ›Helfen können wir uns nur selbst‹ (1974), Gardi Deppe accompanies young women in a West German spa clinic and stages with them a role play in which they give expression to their experiences of exploitation. Through the conversations with the doctors it becomes clear that the cure aims less at healing than at reintegrating them into the world of work and family. For ›Die fünfblättrige Fliederblüte‹ (1993), Yingli Ma visits her home city Beijing and meets four friends from her school days.