Das Fräulein

Das Fräulein or Fräulein was directed by Swiss filmmaker Andrea Štaka in 2006, and won seven awards, including Golden Leopard at Locarno Festival.

Plot
Ruza (Mirjana Karanović) a Serb, left Belgrade more than 25 years ago to seek a new life in Zurich. Now in her fifties, she has completely detached herself from the past. She owns a cafeteria and maintains an orderly, joyless existence. Mila (Ljubica Jović), a waitress there, is a good-humored Croatian woman who also emigrated decades ago, but, unlike Ruza, she dreams of returning to a house on the Croatian coast. Both of them receive a jolt when Ana (Marija Škaričić), a young Bosniak, itinerant woman who has fled Sarajevo, breezes into the cafeteria looking for work. Ruza hires her but is annoyed by Ana's impulsive and spirited efforts to inject life into the cafeteria. Gradually the acrimony will dissipate, as Ana, who hides a tragic secret under her passionate spirit, begins to thaw Ruža's chill, and their relationship will change both women in ways they never anticipated.

Themes
As stated by Štaka, the film touches the issues deeply personal to her. Observing the lives of three Yugoslavian women from different generations who fled from their homeland seeking better future in Switzerland, she contemplates on displacement of our era.

Reception
Das Fräulein was well received by critics. The movie won Golden Leopard at the 59th Locarno Festival and became the first Swiss film since 1985 to win the award. It also received Youth Jury First Prize, as well as the Don Quixote Prize from the International Federation of Film Societies.