Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day, Part 4: Harald and Monika

Workers are not just workers. They also have feelings, preferences, needs, problems. This episode is mostly about challenges that take place outside working hours. Monika (Renate Roland) would like to work again, and she wants to divorce Harald (Kurt Raab)—but Harald wants neither, nor does he want to leave their daughter, Sylvia, in Monika’s custody. Jochen (Gottfried John) and Marion (Hanna Schygulla) want to get married—but Marion’s mother envisions a different man for her daughter. And Oma (Luise Ullrich) is sick of being permanently tyrannized by her son-in-law Wolf (Wolfried Lier), so she moves out and starts to live with Gregor (Werner Finck). (Adapted from notes by The Fassbinder Foundation)