Die mit dem Bauch tanzen

Dancing with Bellies

If they keep on saying it, then it must be true, mustn’t it? Growing old is no picnic. Hot flushes lurk at every turn and anti-wrinkle creams become one’s faithful companions. You might want to grow old gracefully, but what to do about your looks? It seems the only thing is to accept the inexorable march of time and hide your flab underneath a big jumper. Or is it?

The filmmaker, 28, a confirmed Berliner for years, is more than flabbergasted to hear that her mother, who lives way out in the sticks, has a new hobby: belly dancing. Once a week, Mum and a few friends cast off their inhibitions and their clothes, don garish garb and, would you believe it, start wobbling their boobs and rolling their bellies around.

Director Carolin Genreith takes a warmly ironic look at her mother and her female friends but also addresses her own fears and vanities. A vibrant portrait which looks beyond the borders of one twentysomething’s coolly urban lifestyle in Berlin to examine the travails of menopause – as well as the art of banishing one’s fear of ageing with a well-placed hip thrust.

Source: 63. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)