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Sisters, or The Balance of Happiness poster
GERMANY · 1979

Sisters, or The Balance of Happiness

Margarethe von Trotta
Synopsis

Sisters Maria and Anna live together. Maria is a most proficient executive secretary, encouraging Anna to finish her studies and start a career. Anna broods, threatens to quit university, takes pills, and keeps a diary. When Maria's relationship with Maurice, the son of her boss, starts to lead to love, Anna takes a selfish and drastic step that plummets Maria into solitude. No longer able to connect with Maurice, Maria does establish a relationship with Miriam, a typist at her office who becomes a surrogate younger sister. But Maria is intrusive as well as helpful. Can this or any relationship work out for this talented woman whose past seems to choke her soul?

Year1979
CountryGermany
DirectorMargarethe von Trotta
Cinematic DNA

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Germany · New German Cinema

Films with Similar Themes

sisterhood · codependency · mental illness · emotional manipulation · loneliness

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