“I betrayed a part of myself / so I could play along,“ are the lyrics in “Eine Wirklichkeit,“ the theme song of GESCHLECHTERKAMPF – DAS ENDE DES PATRIARCHATS. Marga (Margarita Breitkreitz) successfully played along for a while – on the most prestigious German theater stages. But now she‘s 42 and sitting at the employment office in front of her career counsellor who is trying to convince her to work at a call center.

The essay film by screenwriter Margarita Breitkreitz and director Sobo Swobodnik primarily focuses on acting – the roles for women over 40 are missing everywhere; they are particularly in danger of old-age poverty and homelessness. Marga doesn‘t give up: she still has so much energy and so much anger. She has conversations with herself all across Berlin like someone who is gradually losing her mind. But Marga doesn‘t want therapy, she wants a revolution. In the name of all women she becomes a powerful hellcat, wreaking wonderful havoc in the patriarchal structures. Abolishing the patriarchy and capitalism – GESCHLECHTERKAMPF demands nothing less. With Brechtian acting, an associative narrative style, and gaudy colors, the film provides food for thought about patriarchal society and how to take action within it. Strategically placed film poster reference role models like Jean-Luc Godard and Chantal Akerman. Important women‘s rights activists of the past get their say in the form of quotes as well as current-day feminists like Reyan Şahin and Theresa Bücker as well as Micaela Dudley, a trans writer. At the center of it all is the notion: feminism is about freedom for everyone.

Eva Szulkowski (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy