Malou

This impressive debut feature by Jeanine Meerapfel benefits from the efforts of several members of R.W. Fassbinder's stock company: actress Ingrid Caven, cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, and composer Peer Raben. Hannah (Grischa Huber), a young married woman, sets out from Germany to find out about her mother, Malou (Caven). She learns that Malou left Strasbourg during the rise of Naziism, married an aristocratic German Jew, fled to Argentina, and was eventually abandoned by the man for whom she gave up her roots. In a series of flashbacks, MALOU creates a rich portrait of two women--a mother whose life was dictated by her dependence on a man and a daughter who ref...