The Hidden Word Part 1

1951 in a gray, dirty industrial town on the Rhine. A family struggles to get by: poor, uneducated, strictly religious, intolerant, suspicious of education, especially among women. For five-year-old Hildegard, who desperately wants to read and write, growing up in such a family is pure torture. Her only ally is her grandfather, who recognizes her talent and encourages her to give free rein to her imagination. She grows up and discovers not only the power of language, but also the beauty of words. Although her love of stories and literature drives her narrow-minded father mad, she continues to quench her thirst for knowledge. As an adolescent, she learns about manners and good taste, as a romantic teenager she learns about first love, as an ambitious young woman she learns the means to defend herself against pushy superiors - and against the prejudices of her family. Thanks to the help of her determination and enlightened teachers, Hildegard ultimately finds a path that makes even her family proud. Hildegard looks behind the facade of language, where she discovers the richness of the hidden word...