Die Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt (Final Hope)

Marc Rothemund’s Die Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt (Final Hope) is a moving film, the more so because it’s based on a true and tragic story. Corinna Safranski, a young police woman, arrives from the provinces in the port-city of Hamburg. Her parents wanted Corinna to take over the family business, a greenhouse, but she is convinced she would make a good police woman. However, the atmosphere in the big-city station is disheartening. The men at the station have the say ­ some are machos, others pantywaists ­ and they take a common pride in playing the big-shot and harassing the women at the job.
       Corinna defends herself. She won’t let Eddy Garbitsch, her department head, put his hand on her. Eddy, played by Axel Prahl (exceptional as the all-around boss-and-buddy), is used to getting his way. He's the chief, and he’s not going to take the affront easily! The other police woman on duty has already slept with him, so she didn’t get mobbed. Corinna does.
       The unwritten »rules« at this police station are inhuman and unbearable. The others don’t raise a hand to help. Instead, they join in the fun. Even worse: she doesn’t receive a show of solidarity from her women companion ­ afraid to interfere, one supposes. Eddy keeps putting on the pressure, embarrassing her before the others ... enough to make you wonder. The abuse she has to take is set in scenes so convincingly that Corinna (another exceptional performance by Anneke Kim Sarnau) receives all our sympathy.
       The last straw occurs when Corinna is stripped of her self-respect in the women’s room. The police men first humiliate her, then turn on the hose under the shower. Now completely isolated, and seeing no way out, her loneliness gets the better of her. Hope gone, she puts her service gun to her head. Final Hope was one of the audience hits at the Hof Film Festival. Special praise goes to all in the cast, screenwriter Fred Breinersdorfer, and cameraman Martin Langer. Screened in the German Films section at the Berlinale, it well deserves to make the rounds on the festival circuit.

Dorothea Moritz