The Policewoman (Die Polizisten). 2000. Directed by Andreas Dresen.

(11/23/00)

I really liked this picture. It was such a warm-hearted film. It is about a 27-year-old woman who becomes a policewoman. She is the only female on the force and interestingly enough she is totally accepted from the beginning. No one resents her or gives her a hard time, even at the beginning.

And they could--because she commits a couple of what could be construed as typically feminine gaffes. A man is caught beating a prostitute whome he claims has stolen his wallet. Anne (the policewoman) is ordered to strip-search the traumatized woman. She finds the wallet, but denies it. It is found by the man.

Later on, she is left guarding a criminal who is handcuffed to something. She lets him persuade her to release him and then kidnaps her. Both of these incidents would provide ammunition for those claiming that a woman shouldn't be on the force, but the film never pursues that direction.

It is a very down-to-earth film about life in a modern town where there is a lot of poverty and in which life is hard. Anne becomes involved with the problems of a ten-year-old boy who is a shoplifter, whose father can't see him because he can't come up with the means to support him.

It is reminiscent of Dragnet, which I barely remember. There aren't any really bad people in the film, although really harsh reality does intrude in the scene of a man in a hospital who has murdered his wife or lover when he didn't know what he was doing. And then there is the scene in which Anne and her partner have to go and tell the parents of a young man that their son has died in some kind of auto-erotic death situation.

The film realistically describes Anne's loneliness. She reluctantly has an affair with her partner, who is married, then asks her superior to find her another partner. This is a realistic human situation.

The film seemed to have been filmed entirely with a hand-held camera which gave the whole thing a documentary quality. It was also very grainy, looking as if it had been blown up from 16mm.