Between loneliness, boredom and sex for sale: this is the life of prostitutes in a remote area in Lower Saxony. They offer their sexual services in caravans. The documentary “Lovemobil” tells the story of women who are often forgotten by society.
Documentary film about prostitutes on the roadside
Most people have an accurate picture of the red-light district on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg or other love miles in Germany. But sex work is much more. Often, sexual services are offered in secret – where no one notices. For example, on the side of the road, between asparagus fields and wind turbines, where lovers prepare themselves erotically in chicly decorated caravans and receive customers.
If you’ve ever been on Lower Saxony’s country roads at night, this image will look familiar. So will filmmaker Elke Margarete Lehrenkrauss, herself a native of Gifhorn, who is now bringing a documentary about prostitutes in this remote area to selected German cinemas. The title: “Lovemobil.” She gives a voice to women who, living on the fringes of society, normally don’t get a hearing. And it does so in an impressive way.
The story of two sex workers – and their landlady
With only her cameraman Christoph Rohrscheidt in tow, Lehrenkrauss accompanied two prostitutes, Rita from Nigeria and Milena from Bulgaria, and their landlady Uschi over a period of two years for her film. There were a total of 60 shooting days.
Uschi is, in a sense, the pimp of the two prostitutes – although in a broader sense that doesn’t really apply. She does rent out caravans to sex workers and is meticulous about getting the daily rent of 70 euros paid on time. However, she is sometimes also a good friend, psychologist or simply a nice conversation partner for the women. In addition to her hard core, her soft and compassionate side flashes up from time to time in the film.
And the sex workers? It may come as a surprise to some, but in “Lovemobil” it becomes clear that despite the dreariness and hopelessness, there are also many moments of happiness for the prostitutes and that there is always a small glimmer of hope waiting for them at the end of the horizon. On the one hand, the viewer is shown the ice-cold reality. And that means: sex for money – without coercion, but strictly speaking, the women don’t sell their bodies voluntarily either. “I wanted to show these gray areas and make the power structures clear,” Lehrenkrauss told the taz.
On the other hand, the women also laugh with their colleagues – or rather friends. They have fun together. They watch series or talk to each other. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that a veil of loneliness always hangs over the caravan. “Lovemobil” makes this more than clear to the viewer.
No voyeuristic view of sex work
The film does not show sex. That was very important to Lehrenkrauss. She wanted to take a detached look at the lives and work of the prostitutes in the Lovemobils, without making it seem voyeuristic. Whenever a john is seen, it is only to show the working conditions of the women – nothing more.
However, “Lovemobil” is not a journalistic work in the form of a social reportage either. According to Lehrenkrauss, there are enough films that portray sex work negatively and deal with topics such as “exploitation” and “coercion” in this context. She therefore completely dispenses with a narrator’s voice. Everything that the film conveys is done through dialogues. And even the moments in which nothing is said and an uncomfortable silence prevails say more than a thousand words ever could.
Several international awards
Lehrenkrauss studied at the Cologne Academy of Media Arts. Before that, she earned a diploma in video art in Lucerne. Her original plan was to make an “experimental documentary short” about the Lovemobile, but she quickly discarded it. The material simply offered too much to cover all the important aspects of the subject in 20 to 30 minutes. So she decided to make a feature-length film. The final version, as it is currently being shown in cinemas, is 103 minutes long.
“Lovemobil” has already won several film awards – both nationally and internationally. It received awards in Los Angeles as well as in Camden on the East Coast of the USA. In Germany, it won the Peace Prize at the Independent Film Festival in Osnabrück, the Home Game Prize in Braunschweig and the “Tilda” Women’s Film Prize, worth 5,000 euros.