The Marriage of Maria Braun

Rainer Werner Fassbinder directs this German drama, the first film in his 'West German Trilogy' which offers comment upon the reconstruction of the Federal Republic after the war. In 1943 an air raid hits the wedding ceremony of Maria (Hanna Schygulla) and Hermann Braun (Klaus Lowitsch). During and after the war, Hermann goes missing on the Russian Front, serves a jail sentence and emigrates to the USA.

Maria, meanwhile, builds up an industrial empire alone.