Synopsis 

Eight women. Three generations. One family story stretching across a century – marked by ruptures, courage, guilt, and reinvention. At its center stands Sibylle Schücking, a pioneer of her time: the first female slaughterhouse director in Europe, a wartime veterinarian, founder of one of Germany’s first women’s shelters, fighter for human and animal rights, an early feminist. Her actions were radical, her will to live unbroken – but her struggles left deep marks… In this intimate and stirring docu-drama, her daughters and granddaughters now speak. Candid, reflective, and often painfully honest, they describe the impact of this larger-than-life woman – a heroine and a burden. What does it mean to be the daughter of a rebel? What remains when one’s mother dedicates herself tirelessly to others, but loses connection to her own family?

The film combines original footage of Sibylle from late 1990s interviews with contemporary conversations among her descendants. Complemented by letters, private photographs, atmospheric reenactments, and authentic locations, a multi-generational portrait of female identity emerges. Trauma, emancipation, motherhood, career, violence, love – big themes become tangible through deeply personal stories. “Eight Women” is not a linear biography. It is a polyphonic space of memory. Each perspective reveals a different truth about the same woman – her battles, her contradictions, her darker sides.And each of the eight women tells her own story: of self-assertion, legacy, and the attempt to carve out one’s own path – despite, or because of, the legacy of a powerful ancestor. A cinematic dialogue about womanhood in changing times. Unvarnished. Complex. And profoundly human.