DORA oder die sexuellen Neurosen unserer Eltern

Dora or the Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents

When her mother decides to stop administering sedative psychopharmaceuticals to her mentally disabled daughter, 18-year-old Dora awakens, as if from a deep sleep. Dora discovers her body, her sensuality and, eventually, sex. Her sudden unbridled lust for life shocks her parents. When Dora gets involved with a man she meets at her job on a market, her furious mother deems the relationship to be abusive and forbids her daughter from seeing her lover. But then events take a momentous turn, and everyone has to rethink not just their relationships but also such issues as self-determination, trust and jealousy.

Courageous, necessary and subtle, Stina Werenfels’ adaptation of Lukas Bärfuss’ stage play is a fearless drama about letting go. The tender, subjective shots that capture the beauty of the world as Dora sees it are as much a part of it as the portrait of a desperate mother struggling with life’s pitfalls and experiencing her own body anew. Jenny Schily plays this mother with moving sensitivity.

Source: 65. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)