Yesterday Girl

Alexander Kluge's 1966 film follows a young woman who has moved from East Germany to the West. Anita G. tries to find work, to study and to settle somewhere; every attempt comes to nothing through bureaucracy, prejudice or her own mistakes. The film is among the first significant works of New German Cinema. Kluge was one of the signatories of the Oberhausen manifesto, and this first feature applies the formal freedom that document argued for: intertitles, documentary images, abrupt cuts and a narrating voice. Alexandra Kluge in the lead is the director's sister. The film's political argument is that postwar Germany, rebuilding itself, has not truly left its past behind; every institution Anita meets carries that continuity. It won the Silver Lion at Venice. Who it's for: those interested in New German Cinema and formally fragmented narrative. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a straightforward story; the film is deliberately interrupted and essayistic.