Full Description
An insightful, merciless black comedy - one of the most viciously funny satires to come out of Germany. Schoolgirl Sonja (Lena Stolze, featured in THE WHITE ROSE) comes from a prominent family and has gained the respect of the people in her small Bavarian town by winning a prize for best essay in a European competition. She decides to enter another competition with a new subject, " My Town During the Third Reich." This time Sonja faces surprise and hostility from her fellow townspeople. The gutsy young woman is denied access to city and church archives. Years later, married with a family, Sonja remains determined to discover the truth. Verhoeven emphasizes civic courage stating, " the attitudes I satirize here can be found in any German town; people are raised and educated to avoid and repress uncomfortable facts and emotions, and to fear anyone trying to find underlying reasons for this behavior." THE NASTY GIRL is based on a true story. Winner, Silver Bear, 1990 Berlin Film Festival; Nominee, Best Foreign Film 1990 Academy Awards.
Filmmaker Bio(s)
Born in Berlin in 1938 and trained for a career in medicine, Verhoeven developed a unique voice in post-war Germany. While some denied and others chose to forget, Verhoeven risked popular opinion by daring to tell the truth. He was the first West German director to raise the issues of German resistance against the Nazis in THE WHITE ROSE, and how modern-day citizens are repressing the truth in THE NASTY GIRL.
Verhoeven completed his trilogy by telling the miraculous and true story of how one woman saved herself from deportation in MY MOTHER'S COURAGE. While the 50th anniversary of the fall of Hitler was marked with messages of healing between Germans and Jews, Daniel Goldhagen's recently published book, HITLER'S WILLING EXECUTIONERS emphasizes the complicity of ordinary Germans with the war. By contrast, Verhoeven tells the little known stories of resistance and of modern-day Germans seeking a relationship with the past.
