After working as an actress and script-writer, Margarethe von Trotta has now directed two features. The first The Second Awakening of Christa Klages is currently in distribution in Australia and her second film is Sisters or the Balance of Happiness.

Sisters, like Christa Klages, is a story about women, two sisters, Maria and Anna, who have a symbiotic relationship. They complement one another and cannot live without each other. Maria is a secretary working in a modern office, the incarnation of the will to succeed and do well. Anna is a student and is sensitive, despairing and vacillating.

Maria demands an emotional dependence in return for her financial support and also wants her to adopt the criterions of success. Anna finally chooses a way of escape and Maria, in repression of her own guilt, now adopts another girl in the office as a "second sister" and tries to form her in her own image.