The Nasty Girl

The Nasty Girl (Das schreckliche Mädchen) is a 1990 West German film based on the true story of Anna Rosmus from Passau, Bavaria. The original German title loosely translates as "The Terrible Girl."

Plot
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.

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

The next year, she enters the contest again. She 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 that 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. Sonja persists and learns that there had been eight concentration camps in the area and that all the Jews were forced out of the town and had 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. She still has to employ trickery to get the information she wants, however. In response, her town's hostility grows from verbal abuse, to death threats to physical assaults as they attempt to silence her with increasing desperation, but nothing deters her.

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

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

Cast

 * Lena Stolze as Sonja
 * Hans-Reinhard Müller as Juckenack
 * Monika Baumgartner as Sonja's mother
 * Elisabeth Bertram as Sonja's grandma
 * Michael Gahr as Paul Rosenberger
 * Robert Giggenbach as Martin
 * Fred Stillkrauth as Sonja's uncle
 * Barbara Gallauner as Miss Juckenack
 * Udo Thomer as Archivist Schulz

Awards

 * BAFTA Award for Best Film not in the English Language
 * Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film
 * 40th Berlin International Film Festival: Silver Bear for Best Director (Michael Verhoeven)
 * New York Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Foreign Language Film

Award nominations

 * Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
 * Golden Bear, Berlin Film Festival