The Nasty Girl

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Das schreckliche Mädchen

Directed by	Michael Verhoeven
Produced by	Michael Senftleben
Written by	Michael Verhoeven
Starring	Lena Stolze Hans-Reinhard Müller Monika Baumgartner
Music by	Lydie Auvray Billy Gorlt Mike Herting Elmar Schloter
Cinematography	Axel de Roche
Editing by	Barbara Hennings
Distributed by	Miramax (USA)
Release date(s)	February 15, 1990
Running time	94 min.
Language	German
IMDb profile

The Nasty Girl (German: Das schreckliche Mädchen), is a 1990 West German drama film based on the true story of Anna Rosmus from Passau, Bavaria. The original German title literally means "the scary girl", and evokes the German equivalent of the bogeyman.

1 Plot summary
2 Primary cast
3 Award wins
4 Award nominations
5 External link

[edit] Plot summary

A German high school student, Sonja (Lena Stolze as a fictionalized version of Anna Rosmus) wins an essay contest and goes on a trip to Paris.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Martin Wegmus begins teaching physics at Sonja's school and one of Sonja's classmates falls in love with him. But almost by luck, Mr. Wegmus and Sonja kiss. The teacher promises to return for her.

The next year, she enters the contest again, and chooses "My Town During the Third Reich" from the possible topics. Her research leads her to discover that her picture-perfect town had been intimately involved in the Third Reich and nearly all of the city's prominent families were members of the Nazi party long before it came to power. As she digs further, local authorities stonewall her efforts but Sonja learned that there had been eight concentration camps in the area and that all the Jews were forced out of the town and their property confiscated.

Sonja marries Martin, and the townsfolk think Sonja has dropped the issue of Nazi involvement. Sonja bears Martin two daughters and studies history at the University. She resumes her research into the town's Nazi past, and wins court cases granting her access to archives, but she still has to employ trickery to get the information she wants.

Meanwhile, her husband feels emasculated as he's forced to take care of the children. The family survives a bomb from the angry townsfolk, but Sonja keeps up her research.

At the end, the townspeople change their tune, even putting a bust of Sonja at the town hall. But Sonja sees through this as a means to silence her and rejects the honor.