Sonja

It is the spring when Iris is 9 years old. It is the spring when Iris is in love for the first time. And it is also the spring when her mother again begins to cry, when the Grandmother is desperate and when the teacher Mrs Linke wants to rehearse a fairy-danse at school. Above all it is the spring when Iris is deciding that she wants to become a man when she grows up because life as a man is easier.

In 1988, 20-year-old Kirsi Marie Liimatainen travels from Finland to the GDR, to study Marxism-Leninism at the International Youth Academy. In summer of´89 the course ends and the students spread out over the world. Afew months later, the Berlin Wall falls. 24 years later Kirsi, sets out on a cinematic journey to Nicaragua, South Africa, Chile, Bolivia, Lebanon, Germany and Finland to meet up once more with her former fellow students. What remains of their dream of the liberation of the oppressed?

Johanna (13) is in love – but how is she to enjoy this rush of emotions when her violent prone father is returning to the family home? Torn between the wish to stay true to her father and the love for her boyfriend, Johanna is faced with an impossible decision. A story about family secrets, the chains of family loyalty and the power to break free.