Faith, Hope, Love or Sadly, Hard Work Must Pay Off

A job cut in a social project here, a beaten-up demonstrator there. Disturbing election forecasts, a later slot for a critical news programme. For Elisabeth, who grew up in the 1990s with Helmut Kohl's paternalistic encouragement to perform ringing in her ears and game shows full of luxury goods before her eyes, the situation is bad, but not threatening. Keep quiet, persevere, wait it out – that's always worked so far. Others notice more quickly than she does that her world is devouring itself, that democracy can abolish itself. Bruno, her colleague in the residential group, whose job is being cut; Maria, the journalist, whose access to the editorial office is blocked one morning; Elisabeth's partner Schupo, who is accused of politically influencing students at university. But little by little, it also suffocates Elisabeth, turning her from a high achiever into a burden, causing her to lose her footing in the system that was made for her.

Gerhild Steinbuch takes aim at the absurdity and cruelty of authoritarian rhetoric with precision and, time and again, great humour. In a rather cold Germany in the not too distant future, Steinbuch's complex, contradictory and very human characters slide inexorably out of a society they trusted and whose supposed values they still defend, even though it has long been clear that values were only ever a pretext.