Das schafft die nie (1994)

A provincial German teen takes an unadvisable route out of her smothering hometown in the tragic German drama Das schafft die nie (1994). Weary of her dead-end town and narrow-minded parents, Rita (Claudia Michelsen) latches on to a friend her age with a dangerous predilection for hard drug use. Before she realizes it, Rita is hooked on heroin, which leads her to being expelled from school, banished from home, HIV-positive, and resorting to prostitution to survive. Lih Janowitz’s film documents a bleak downward spiral, but there’s a silver lining in the shape of Michelsen’s tantalizing bod. Dancing for cash in a seedy strip joint, the heroine puts on the kind of show that makes viewers forget about the relentlessly dire context.