Marianne and Juliane

Marianne and Juliane German Die bleierne Zeit lit. The Leaden Time or Leaden Times, also called The German Sisters in the United Kingdom, is a 1981 West German film directed by Margarethe von Trotta. The screenplay is a fictionalized account of the true lives of Christiane and Gudrun Ensslin. Gudrun, a member of The Red Army Faction, was found dead in her prison cell in Stammheim in 1977. In the film, Von Trotta depicts the two sisters Juliane Christine and Marianne Gudrun through their friendship and journey to understanding each other. Marianne and Juliane was von Trottas third film and solidified her position as a director of the New German Cinema.

Two sisters, both dedicated to womens civil rights, fight for the same cause, although in very different ways. The story is interspersed with flashbacks into the sisters childhood.The sisters choose diverging paths of rebellion against the system. Juliane works as a feminist journalist rallying for a womans right to abortion while Marianne commits herself to a violent revolutionary terrorist group. The film quickly informs us that Marianne has abandoned her husband and child to work for a radical terrorist group. Her husband arrives at Juliannes house and states that Juliane must take Jan their son because the husband has to leave the country for work. Juliane is not supportive of her sisters choices because she feels that they are damaging to the womens movement. She informs the husband that she does not have time to care for the child. Next the husband steps out to go get something, promising to return, but instead takes his life leaving Jan without a guardian. ........

Source: Wikipedia