It's summer and very hot in Germany's only open-air swimming pool for women. There, women bathe topless, in a bikini, bathing suit or burkini. Each follows different rules. This always leads to friction, which the overwhelmed lifeguard is not quite able to control. When a group of completely veiled women enthusiastically discovers the women's bath for themselves, rags literally fly: Who owns the bath and who makes the rules? Who owns the female body? And when is a woman a woman at all? The lifeguard resigns, exasperated. But when a man of all people is hired as the successor as lifeguard, the situation escalates in unpredictable directions.
Writing
Satire sharp enough to cut through sunscreen
Acting
Andrea Sawatzki's exhausted everywoman perfection
Direction
Dörrie weaponizes awkward silences brilliantly
Director
Doris Dörrie
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Germany's 2016 burkini bans in public pools sparked real legal battles; Dörrie fictionalizes the absurdity without picking easy sides.
The pool setting isn't arbitrary—German Freibäder are legally segregated by gender in many regions, making the 'women's space' premise uncomfortably bureaucratic.
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