Born in 1937 to Jewish parents, Anita G. leaves the GDR for West Germany in search of a better life. With no home or job, she is caught stealing and sent to prison. After her release her probation officer tries to help her, but she has trouble adjusting to life in a new society and becomes a drifter. When she falls in love with a married civil servant, she finally begins to feel a sense of security, until she is recognized by a woman she betrayed.

With a semi-documentary style well-suited to the story, Yesterday Girl, Kluge’s feature film debut, launched the West German New German Cinema movement. It is paired with Konrad Wolf's Divided Heaven (1964) in the Made in West/East Germany film program, organized by the DEFA Film Library in collaboration with the Goethe Institute Boston. To rent this film, contact the Film Archive at the Goethe Institute Boston.