The outdoor pool is at its loveliest at night, when the water glitters in the moonlight and only the rubber toys sway peacefully on its surface. During the day it is more peaceful with vinegar. Too many people.
Doris Dörrie’s “Freibad” is set in Germany’s only women’s outdoor pool, there is actually one in Freiburg with an area just for women, but she thought it up nicely in the film. First of all, two ladies, who are no longer quite young, reign on the meadow, their friends Eva (Andrea Sawatzki) and Gabi (Maria Happel), who have been coming to the outdoor pool for a long time and only find it mediocre when someone steals their regular loungers from them. Opposite resides all of Yasemin’s (Nilam Farooq) female relatives, which only works well as long as they don’t start grilling the lamb sausages that the kiosk doesn’t sell. Yasemin herself keeps away from her family – her mother, a classic Normalo, doesn’t really understand why the daughter has recently been presenting herself in a black full body suit with a hood at the swimming pool. In any case, the scramble is already starting: Who is allowed to carry what in the pool, is it allowed to grill here yourself? At some point, a few somewhat dazed police officers stand at the edge of the pool. The ladies do their best to drive lifeguard Steffi (Melodie Wakivuamina) insane. She thinks that only one person has anything to report here: she. She throws down, splash! And is replaced by a man who at times seems like an antelope in a predatory enclosure.
Doris Dörrie wrote the screenplay together with Karin Kaçi and Madeleine Fricke, and she lovingly designed each of these characters – the cool Steffi with her Schwytzerdütsch, Eva, who was once a pop star and whose life went so horribly wrong that it’s no wonder that she struggles with growing old; the cute chubby Paula who finally someone tells her that she is gorgeous, but unfortunately in Arabic, which she does not understand. None of these women are evil – but sometimes they are mischievous. And the mixture of superfluous teasing and exaggerated sensitivity that sometimes coexists in the same person eventually flies in their face.
Transfiguring “Freibad” into a political science work would do the film an injustice
Freedom, that’s what Eva’s biggest hit is about, which to her frustration is played daily as a bouncer – that’s exactly what they can’t do. Freedom would be a minimal set of rules with simultaneous consideration, but unfortunately there are a hundred delicate egos at work here. The best example is the storyline with the sausages: of course it’s lousy to only offer pork sausages; to smoke the neighboring lounger in your own grilling process is not so great either; and when there is finally lamb sausages at the kiosk, they are only eaten by the lamb sausage friends when the pork sausages have all been driven off the grill. How beautiful the world in general and the idyllic outdoor pool in particular could be if everyone didn’t entrench themselves in a definitive position for every trifle. For the sausage culture conflict, Dörrie has a final, appetizing solution that is also climate-friendly. Doris Dörrie’s women’s outdoor pool is a funny reflection of the western world: everyone is good at handing things out, nobody accepts anything. However, this is not a problem specific to women.
Doris Dörrie has a wonderfully unobstructed view of her fellow creatures: Nilam Farooq as Yasemin (left) and Julia Jendrossek as Paula.
(Photo: Mathias Bothor/Constantin/dpa)
Transfiguring “Freibad” into a political science work would do the film an injustice anyway. Doris Dörrie, with whom one always gets the impression that she has worked hard and fought for her right to a remnant of naivety – seems more like saying: Relax, please. And that’s what really sets “Freibad” apart: Doris Dörrie has a wonderfully unbiased view of her fellow creatures, lovingly but not blind to their mistakes. Exactly why Yasemin is wearing the black full-body swimming suit – she doesn’t analyze it for long, but then Yasemin is not enthusiastic when a group of well-off Arab women with designer bags triggers a burkini inflation and her unique selling point is gone.
Is that enough for a great comedy? Not directly, at some point the battles over the terrain get on your nerves, and maybe that’s how it should be, because then you might realize how annoying it is in reality. It’s definitely enough for an entertaining, thoughtful, but not too profound film. Doris Dörrie may have made a name for herself with a comedy, but some of her most beautiful films aren’t comedies. “Cherry Blossoms – Hanami” about, or “How to cook your life”. “Freibad” isn’t nearly as riotous and slapstick as the trailer suggests – sometimes the film becomes very calm, sentimental, almost peaceful. Even with people.
outdoor pool, D 2022 – Director: Doris Dörrie. Screenplay: D. Dörrie, Karin Kaçi, Madeleine Fricke. Camera: Hanno Lentz. With: Andrea Sawatzki, Maria Happel, Nilam Farooq, Melodie Wakivuamina, Samuel Schneider. Constantine, 102 minutes. Theatrical release: September 1, 2022