Natalie - Endstation Babystrich (1994 TV Movie) User Reviews

How it unfolded

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 13 August 2016]

"Natalie - Endstation Babystrich" is a German 90-minute movie from 1994, so this one is already over 20 years old too. The director here is Herrmann Zschoche and this is one of his most known (maybe his most known) work after the German Reunification. He was one of the most successful GDR filmmakers back in the day. For actress Annne-Sophie Briest, Natalie was certainly her career-defining role. The only other cast member I know in here is Oliver Korittke, who is the only one who made it somewhat big in the last two decades. The main antagonist is played by Falk-Willy Wild and I guess he did okay overall and his sleaziness and emotional bankruptcy and phoniness were easily visible throughout the film. Sadly only to us and not to Natalie, who keeps looking up to him. The best performance comes probably from Volker Kraeft and he had a huge challenge. We have no idea throughout the film why his character gets so much screen-time until the solution at the very end and this could have gone very wrong, but Kraeft made it work somehow. Other than him, there is very little light in here though. The acting is very hammy at times and this also includes Briest and pretty much every other actor in at least one scene. I can see why she did not really break through aside from this franchise. Yes, I wrote "franchise" as for some reason, several sequels followed to this movie here. It was a television production, so I just guess that audience numbers were good enough. Zschoche, however, did not return for any of these and he probably made the right decision as the quality in this first film was already pretty abysmal at times and had little to do with realistic plot writing at all. The one big example is that Natalie is very inexperienced with sexuality, but within days she becomes ready to become a prostitute after early on she refuses to be photographed in a sleazy outfit. This did not make any sense at all and there were huge problems in terms of the way her character was written. This is not a good film. Stay away.

No nude pictures of 14 year old actress

[chbs · 2 August 2003]

I see that in an earlier comment by Tristan (katz_6988) the actress playing Natalie (Anne-Sophie Briest) is 14 or 15 year when the movie was made.

But the movie is from 1994 and Anne-Sophie Briest is born 21 March 1974. So she is about 20 years when she does the movie.

So no young teenage nudity...

Sad but true fact about the German underground prostitution ring

[katz_6988 · 8 September 2001]

The setting of the movie is a average german city with an average german family. The girl Natalie feels abandoned by her family who only seem to care about their other smaller daughter who has asthma. After several fights with her dad, Natalie decides to run off with a guy she meets (whish ends up being a middle man for a prostitution ring). Natalie gets stuck deeper and deeper into the child prostitution ring, and there almost seems to be no way out. The movie is a sad but true image about the german underground prostitution ring. It shows how a girl with uncarering parents can drive her to end up on the streets. One thing that troubled me was that they did show several scenes that showed Natalie (who is only about 14-15) naked. I would not really consider it child pornography because it is meant to disturb the viewer. My last words on this is that it has a great storyline, showing not only the prostitution ring of Frankfurt, but also some modern german culture. But i dont think it is possible to get a hold of this movie here in the US because of the nude scenes that show a 14-15 year old girl.

Tristan Katz_6988