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Prinzessinnenbad – Teenager Trio in Berlin-Kreuzberg
By Werner Sedlag | August 12, 2008
In Bettina Blümner’s debut feature Prinzessinnenbad (Germany, 2007) we are abruptly tossed right in the middle of the shimmering life of young girls. The story is easily told. We accompany Klara, Mina and Tanutscha, all 15-years-old and the best of friends, as they live each day as it comes. Their playground is multi-ethnic Berlin-Kreuzberg, where their rounds take them from home to the less liked school to the much loved freedom of the streets.
Fathers – save for one exception – do not exist. As for well meaning mothers, they’re at the end of their ropes and burdened with their own problems. As the girls gradually grow up, it affects their friendship. Their interests pull them apart.
In the end, the close ties of the youngsters start to unravel, and their childhood is finally over. Both the filmmaker and the trio of nonprofessionals deserved the praise received when Pool of Princesses premiered in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino at last year’s Berlinale. The princesses run the gamut of early disillusions (“the guys here have toughen me”), and although they are not broken down in the process, they do grow up faster and sooner – much too early! Their love of life becomes more cautious. They note this process with great vitality and astonishingly forthright reaction, often fairly gruff, but also comical (especially Tanutscha) and full of some foreboding of what will still come.
Mathias Schöningh’s camera captures in compact images the lively tempo of this Berlin quarter. His close-ups of faces divulge more than words. Altogether, Prinzessinnenbad is a pleasantly unsentimental film, one that a male director could not have accomplished, and it carries with it a pedagogical message. Also, because Bettina Blümner doesn’t leave Kreuzberg, nor its social milieu, we are treated to an “insider film” that’s not as readily accessible in other corners of this metropolis. Both a strength and a limitation.
Pool of Princesses was deservedly awarded for its dialogue. During the screening I noticed that several in the audience were not only favorably impressed, but they recognized themselves and joined in the fun. PS: The question about the new smoking restriction and how it fits the behavior of these 15 year-olds is another matter altogether and better left open.
– Werner Sedlag
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