Sternstunde ihres Lebens

Bonn, 1948: Equal rights for men and women are still in their infancy. The Federal Republic of Germany has not even been born yet. A female lawyer and SPD member of parliament was then taking it upon herself to enshrine a now self-evident sentence in the newly created Basic Law: "Men and women have equal rights." Elisabeth Selbert was the name of the woman who, 70 years before the #MeToo movement, became one of the pioneers in the fight for equal rights and whose verve and perseverance Iris Berben embodies so well - against the macho bastion in parliament and against female skepticism in her own ranks. Only slowly does Selbert's environment emerge from the cocoon of a role concept that has been inculcated for centuries and cemented under National Socialism. Selbert's secretary Irma (Anna Maria Mühe) only takes Selbert's side after a disappointing affair with a married member of parliament. The politician is supported ideologically by her husband Adam Selbert, who has remained at home in Kassel and is recovering from the horrors of his "protective custody" in a concentration camp. Erica von Moeller's historical drama reaches back into the past and traces the profound upheavals of the German post-war years. The tentacles of the Nazi era can still be felt in the minds and structures of the political establishment. Grueling debates, female solidarity and male allies were necessary until equal rights found their place in the dry-sounding Article 3, Paragraph 2 of the new Basic Law. This story is wrapped up in an exciting and fact-filled portrait of an exceptional politician who is considered one of the four "Mothers of the Basic Law" and who proves that it is worth fighting for - no matter how great the resistance may seem.