Die Frau, die sich traut

Beate used to be a competitive swimmer. But today she is more than anything else a mother, grandmother and employee at a laundry service. She gives it all for her family, otherwise nothing would work out for her grown-up children and their lives. But the moment comes when it is time to look back: back to a time when she still had dreams of her own. She hasn’t really accomplished or realized many of her goals and desires. Beate decides to change her life, to no longer be available around the clock for her children, but to do something for herself for a change, something she has always wanted to do, something which is far greater than all of her obligations. She wants to swim across the English Channel. No easy tasks for a woman in her fifties: not only does her family need her, but she is also under pressure time-wise: her doctor has diagnosed her with cancer. She doesn’t like doctors, never has, particularly during her competitive years when she had to pop Turbinol – the diagnosis is probably the consequence of the years of doping. So she continues to train, the journey itself being the reward. And she has to fight against everything and everyone. Not only the cold water of the Baltic Sea, but also against her best friend Henny, who thinks she is crazy, her family, and in the end, even herself.

Source: 47. Hofer Filmtage 2013