Engelchen is a film about the thoughts, feelings, actions and experiences of Ramona Schneider, a lonely woman in a difficult situation. ‘Little Angel’ is the nickname of this hyper-sensitive woman with an almost obsessive fixation on the seamy side of life. She leads an inconspicuous life near the Ostkreuz Station in Berlin. Through a grotesque coincidence she meets the Pole Andrzej, a roguish and good-looking youth with connections in the Berlin underworld who is involved with shady deals such as selling cigarettes on the black market. When the two fall in love, the sombre clouds in Ramona’s life slowly start to clear. Her luck does not hold for long, however. Her life has too long been dominated by all kinds of obsessions. Her unexpected luck turns and she has an inevitable and tragic fall.Engelchen is characterised by uncompromising, grey realism, supported by a very powerful role by the versatile actress Susanne Lothar. The rest of the cast is just as strong: director Misselwitz had access to the best Berlin stage actors. As Dimitri Eipides wrote in the Toronto Catalogue: ‘Darkness has never been so satisfying.’
