Im Kreise der Lieben

The Terrible Threesome

Grandmother, mother, granddaughter – the Grund family is nothing if not high functioning. Maria, the youngest, travels the land relieving willing men of their money with a marriage con. Her mother Getrud makes sure that Maria looks perfect and contributes an emotional note to their family life, while senior citizen Emmi manages their finances in the kitchen. When the stress gets too much for the trio, they relax with an evening game of rummy. But then Maria meets a fellow con artist who is out for revenge, and Getrud falls in love with one of the marks Maria has fleeced and invites him into the household, putting the survival of their testosterone-free family idyll at serious risk …

Hermine Huntgeburth placed the focus of her black comedy on a woman who uses self-assured roleplaying to fulfil the desires men project onto her. Those imputed feelings are in stark contrast to the entirely "unfeminine" behaviour the women display when they need to defend the autonomy of their women's alliance – if necessary with a rolling pin or a frying pan. An antic film that uses calculated exaggeration to make its point.

Source: 69. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)