Girls Don´t Cry
Section: Competition of European Feature Documentaries for Young Audience
Director: Sigrid Klausmann / Germany / 2025 / 90 min
English, German, Korean, Serbian, Spanish, Swahili / Czech subtitles, English subtitles
Sigrid Klausmann, Thorsten Harms
16:00 - 17:30
GAC - sál 5 | LIDL
Sigrid
Klausmann
Sigrid Klausmann, born in Furtwangen in the Black Forest, grew up as the third of seven children. Her childhood, she says, has been the cornerstone for her activities as an adult and her great interest for art and children. At first, she worked as a sport teacher, she was a dancer and modern dance teacher and choreographed and staged several full-length plays with young people. She has received the cultural prize of the town of Ludwigsburg, has been working since 2003 as a documentary film maker and founded jointly with her husband Walter Sittler Schneegans Productions. Most themes of her films are the affairs of adolescent. Since 2011 Sigrid Klausmann works as the leading director of the short film series “199 LITTLE S*HEROES” The documentary film “NOT WITHOUT US!”, which is part of this project, has won several awards, as have several of the shorts. The most personal of her films is a documentary about her mother's life “LEONIE AND THE WAY UP”. Sigrid Klausmann will complete her career as a filmmaker with “GIRLS DON’T CRY”. Her great wish is to empower girls with this latest work, motivated by the birth of her first granddaughter, whom she dedicates the film to.
How do girls fare in a world that often feels more restrictive than free? Girls Don’t Cry follows six brave teenage girls from around the globe, each facing unique challenges but united by one desire: to live freely and on their own terms. They want to choose whom to love, make decisions about their bodies, and live without control, prejudice, or patriarchy. Nancy escaped female genital mutilation in Tanzania and now lives in a safe house. In Chile, Selenna was born in a boy’s body but has known since age four that she’s a girl. Yazidi girl Sheelan fled genocide in northern Iraq and now lives in Germany. Despite different backgrounds, all seek the same thing – a life of freedom and authenticity. But that’s far from guaranteed. This documentary, filled with courage and resilience, is both an inspiration and a powerful call for real girl power – and a better, freer world for the next generation.
