Helke Sander: The All-Round Reduced Personality – Redpuers

The All-Round Reduced Personality – Redpuers (Die allseitig reduzierte Persönlichkeit – Redupers), Helke Sander, 99’, FRG, ZDF 11.10.1979, OV with English subtitles

The ZDF application for approval of treatment: “Elfriede Kant tries to eliminate everything superfluous from her life in order to prove to herself and her environment that it is possible in our society to be a mother, to be a woman and to work in a profession of one’s own choosing. The problem is: there is hardly anything superfluous to do away with.” In scenic snapshots, Helke Sander recounts the life of a single-parent photographer, who begins a photo project on West Berlin with a group of women. Asked about the candidness of her story, she says: “Self-contained stories pretend a reality that doesn’t exist. They distract you from reality by way of identification, while fractures inspire you.” A film that resonates with today’s debates about family and work.

Helke Sanders (*1937) is a German director, actress and activist, one of the co-founders of the Action Council for the Liberation of Women in 1968, and the founder of the magazine Frauen und Film (Women and Film) in 1974. She has received many awards for her short and feature films, including a Golden Bear and the Federal Film Award. The All-Round Reduced Personality - Redupers (1978) was made with Das kleine Fernsehspiel and screened in the Berlinale Forum. For the editorial department, she also made The Subjective Factor (1981) and one episode of the feminist film series Seven Woman, Seven Sins (1987). Back in 1971, the Forum screened A Bonus for Irene.