Mädchen in Uniform

Director Leontine Sagan elicits a stunning performance from Hertha Tiele in this by turns moving and humorous portrait of a young woman rebelling against the system. Tiele's role led to her becoming an underground icon of the '30s lesbian scene. In Mädchen in Uniform (1931), young Manuela von Meinhardis (Hertha Tiele) attends a strict Prussian boarding school, where she falls madly in love with her teacher, Fraülein von Bernburg (Dorothea Wieck). The school, which Manuela has been sent to following the death of her parents, is ruled by cast-iron order and discipline. This was common in Germany around 1900, where tough, military discipline was seen as essential in shaping the young nation state.