Berlin

Jakob Lass talks about his film "Tiger Girl" at the Berlinale 2017.

© Gerhard Kassner / Berlinale

Having failed to get into the police force, Margarete takes up training as a security guard. One night she runs into a sexually agressive ex-colleague who insists on hailing a taxi to take her home to his place. Enter Tiger: short brown hair, a tough girl and a fighter, the cab driver. Realising that the situation is far from consensual, Tiger speeds off with Margarete, leaving her companion standing in the street. It won’t be the last time she rushes to Margarete’s aid. Tiger lives in an attic flat with two men. She knows how to wield a baseball bat. Stealing a uniform from security and renaming Margarete ‘Vanilla’, she begins to steer her life in a completely different direction.
Jakob Lass, who scored a hit with Love Steaks, here films according to the rules of his very own ‘FOGMA’ manifesto, which means that much of the dialogue is improvised. In spite of the film’s documentary style, the story is fast-paced and up tempo, with stylised fight scenes. In the beginning it might be about keeping pushy males at bay, but the women’s uniforms and fists are soon put to other uses. The stakes are increasingly raised and moral values are soon being challenged.