In the rundown rental house on the outskirts of town, nine-year-old Gina not only takes care of her little brothers, but also her pregnant, overwhelmed and still young mother Gitte. She finally wants to make a real father figure out of Gitte’s on-again, off-again boyfriend and wants to turn Gitte’s self-centered mother into a loving grandma. Gina fights for a safe family and love, for the baby in Gitte’s belly, for her brothers and for herself. She defies hopelessness, and neglect and the threat of the youth welfare office. The film is a female three-generation drama told through the eyes of a child who refuses to let fate dictate her future. GINA shows us that phenomena such as poverty, neglect and lack of education can be repeated from generation to generation, that family patterns can become established and how difficult it is to free oneself from them by one’s own efforts.

Ulrike Kofler, born in Innsbruck in 1974, is an Austrian film editor, film director and screenwriter. After training as a photographer she studied film editing at the Film Academy Vienna and then at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. In 2020, she made her feature film debut as a director with the drama WHAT WE WANTED, which was nominated by the Austrian Film and Music Industry Association as the Austrian candidate for Best International Film for the 2021 Oscars. She has worked as an editor on numerous films, including CORSAGE by Marie Kreutzer (Cannes Film Festival 2022). GINA is her second feature film.

Filmography (selection): 2009 DOOF, 2020 WAS WIR WOLLTEN, 2023 SEXUELL VERFÜGBAR (TV miniseries), 2024 GINA