10 Amazing Films Directed By Women
7. Germany Pale Mother
Okay, so Germany Pale Mother is not an easy film to unpack. Directed by Helma Sanders-Brahms in 1980, it owes a great deal to feminist theory at the time, specifically in regards to the linkage between a woman's personal life and larger role in the political sphere.
But there's so much more going on here than that. Germany Pale Mother follows Lene, a young German woman, through her marriage and motherhood through World War II and in the immediate post-war period.
It reflects on the nature of male violence, and the resulting effect on women -- by personifying Germany as a woman and particularly as a mother, Lene's painful and traumatizing experiences throughout the war are a metaphor for a broken and demoralized Germany still reeling from its tremendous losses.
It's not exactly a fun film that you might watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon, but it is a remarkably rewarding one if you give it a chance.