Glücksritterinnen

Summary

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, life in Russia has become a struggle for survival.
The looming state bankruptcy, the increase in crime and the lack of education and career opportunities have pushed many mothers to send their daughters to the Golden West hoping they can build a better life there.
The director, Katja Fedulova, came to Germany herself in 1993 and started her studies in Kiel where she became friends with five fellow Russians sharing a similar fate: Ilona, Olga, Alesja, Tatiana and Zhenja. They get by working illegal jobs, they are party-crazy and they enjoy hunting for eligible bachelors, while dreaming of true love.

13 years later, the friends reunite in Kiel; an opportunity for Katja Fedulova to address and portray her friends′, as well as her own, history and experiences cinematically. What has become of their dreams? There is Ilona, who doesn‘t fully accept her existence as a teacher and continues to chase unfulfilled career goals. Zhenja, who has returned to St. Petersburg and fully enjoys the hedonism of her new nouveau riche lifestyle. Or the single mother Tatjana, who pushes her daughter relentlessly. And Olga, who ran away from an old, unresolved trauma and found refuge in the mother role of an Italian mama. Alesja battles her alcohol addiction and strives to be a better mother to her daughter than her own mother was. And Katja herself has to compare her life to her mother′s. Where does she stand today?

Their destinies reflect the struggles of an immigrant′s life, the shattered hopes and pragmatic compromises, the uprooting and – in each individual story – the struggle for self-determination. However, the complicated relationship between mother and daughter stands at the center of the film.