Ku'damm 56 – Rebel with a Cause

Three sisters do their best to live up to their mother's expectations and stifling social conventions. It comes at a price, and one sister discovers rock ‘n’ roll, through which she finds the courage to rebel. Berlin, 1956. After being expelled from the Institute of Home Economics, Monika Schöllak tries to throw herself from the subway on her way home, but is stopped by a young stranger. At home, she is met with the scornful reprimands of her mother, Caterina. Ever since her husband left for the front—and she has heard nothing from him since—Caterina has ruled her three daughters and her ballroom dance school, the Galant, on the city’s main avenue, the Kurfürstendamm (known as “Ku’damm”), with an iron fist. She despairs of finding a suitable position for Monika, but her other daughters’ prospects for marriage give her cause for optimism: Helga is set to marry Wolfgang, a future attorney general, and Eva continues to flirt with Professor Fassbender, her older supervisor, with whom she works at the psychiatric clinic.