Under the Pavement Lies the Strand: Berliners build a feminist future

Part of the New German Cinema boom, Helma Sanders-Brahms' 1975 film about two actors asks if theatre still has revolutionary potential

• The stage on screen: more films about theatre

Grischa Huber, the magnetic German star who died this year aged 76, became a feminist icon in European cinema with one of her first features. She was an established stage performer by the time she was cast by director Helma Sanders-Brahms as a politically engaged theatre actor in the film Unter dem Pflaster ist der Strand (1975). It was released with an awkward English title, Under the Pavement Lies the Strand, which failed to translate the final word as beach". The original refers to a slogan popular during the 1968 protests in France: Sous les paves, la plage!" Literally, this was a reference to the sand beneath dislodged stones thrown in riots; metaphorically, it implied utopia unspoilt by modern society.

Huber's character, also named Grischa, is appearing in a Greek drama about how the ancient rule of women has been abolished by men. A striking shot captures the actresses joined in a silent scream; Sanders-Brahms will go on to explore how women in the 1970s are still being silenced, but are uniting to redefine their roles in society.