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Helke Sander takes her time between productions to pour as much personal philosophical reflection into her films as possible. Following The All-Round Reduced Personality and The Subjective Factor, her latest film tells of the friendships between two women who share a lover.
The man involved, Traugott, wants to be fair and doesn't interfere. He thinks Freya is the stronger of the two, so he returns to Irmtraut - without saying so much as a single word of explanation to Freya. When he shows up again one day, Freya is no longer willing to be "just good friends". She refuses all compromises and demands an explanation.
Traugott refuses to help her find out what went wrong. Freya broods, she becomes problematic with her friends, nobody laughs while she is around.
As one friendship after another falls apart, Freya becomes increasingly reclusive. Eventually Traugott takes a ship for South America with a new girlfriend. He wants to start all over again. On shore, Freya saddles the horses. Her off-screen laughter resounds.
The director, Helke Sander, also plays the lead role of Freya with a sensitive elegance .She guides the film over its storyline of the emotional pitfalls of love in the 1980s with an assured sense of control and a wry sense of humour.