A singer-whore (Barbara Sukowa) with almost as much ambition as nerve singles out the incorruptible local building commissioner (Armin Mueller-Stahl) as the object of her worldly charms. An explosive film from director Rainer Werner Fassbinder that's frequently grouped in a trilogy with Veronika Voss and The Marriage of Maria Braun, due to the shared theme of women's experiences with loss and survival in postwar Germany.