Inge Herold is in her mid-thirties. She is divorced and lives with her 15-year-old son. She works as a psychologist and social worker and is involved with a married man. Suddenly, Inge finds out she may have breast cancer, which would mean an operation the very next day. The 24 hours before the planned surgery puts her under enormous psychological pressure and she begins to reevaluate her life. With heightened awareness of matters of everyday life, she realizes that what she previously considered meaningful, was actually void of any real meaning.
Acting
Christine Schorn's face does what pages of dialogue cannot.
Direction
Warneke turns waiting rooms into existential battlefields.
Director
Lothar Warneke
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
DEFA studio films like this slipped subtle dissidence past censors by making personal despair political.
Warneke originally wanted the diagnosis ambiguous; producers insisted on cancer, making Inge's existential crisis literally embodied.
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