That uncomfortable condition or situation, which can even cause embarrassment. The film deals with social unease, living without many opportunities to escape the moral brutality of 1970s German suburbs. Even the police find themselves uneasy, left to their own devices to combat a complex reality, without the support of an adequate jurisprudence to counter the perverse phenomena of ever-expanding cities.
Teenager Sophie (Gerhild Berktold) runs away from her orphanage because she can't stand the suffocating climate imposed by the nuns. On the street, she encounters the slimy Zuhalter Hotte (Axel Schiessler), who forces her into prostitution. Sinking into a terrible spiral, she finds support only from her prostitute friend and a young social worker (Werner Umberg).
Director Ehmck, with very few resources at his disposal, tackles the issue of child prostitution, which proliferates amid the indifference of bourgeois morality, without filters; the screenplay, written by the director with Christian Rolf, is very linear, if slightly episodic; the acting, screenplay, and editing are truly awful. The only redeeming feature, unlike the other actors, is the protagonist, Gerhild Berktold.
Best moments: one client after another in an endless and squalid sequence, the prostitution alienating, to the point of making you feel like an empty piece of meat. A must-see for those who enjoy protest films, even if the treatment is a bit dated, given that reality has changed since the 1970s.
