A comedy of young people incarcerated in German prisons is a hard thing to pull off, but Heidi Ulmke, working from a witty and intelligent script by Geraldine Blecker, a British singer-actress who served time in a German prison, does just that. Shot on actual prison locations, the film traces a pen-pal love affair between Babsi, serving time in Bavaria, and Michael, in the hole in Hessen. They are "introduced" over a pair of pants, laundry being one of the few ways messages can be communicated on the inside; with the help of their fellow inmates, they petition a barbaric bureaucracy for permission to visit each other, if only once. The meeting between the impish Babsi, and Michael, by then slightly the worse for wear, is as anti-climactic as might be predicted; the film's spark comes from the build-up and the clever repartee from some not-so-hardened inmates.