Cornelia Funke and the "lesbian chicken"

By MeL on Thursday, January 29, 2009 - 23:11

When we think of lesbian storylines in movies, on TV or in books, we don’t usually think of lesbian teenagers. Or, if we do, we expect some serious coming-of-age, coming-out drama. Luckily, the lesbian storyline of “Die wilden Hühner und die Liebe” (“The Wild Chicken and Love”) is nothing like that, which makes it so interesting and unique.

“Die wilden Hühner” is a series of books written by well-known German author Cornelia Funke (“Inkheart”, “The Thief Lord”). It tells the story of Sprotte, Trude, Frieda, Melanie and Wilma, five girls who form a gang – die “wilden Hühner” – to defend themselves against a group of boys who call themselves “Pygmäen” (“Pygmies”). Eventually, of course, the boys and the girls become friends. 

The series is comprised of five books, two of which ­have been made into movies, and it follows the girls and boys on their way from childhood to puberty until finally, in “Die wilden Hühner und die Liebe“, it’s all about falling in love. Sprotte is in love with Fred, the leader of the Pygmies. Melanie is heart-broken because her boyfriend Willi left her for an older girl. Frieda only sees her boyfriend every other weekend, because he lives in another city. Trude has a crush on a boy who only has eyes for Wilma, but Wilma doesn’t seem very interested in boys at all and prefers to spend time with her new friend, Leonie, who she met in the school’s drama group. When the “Hühner” find out that Wilma and Leonie are in love, things get complicated and the gang is on the verge of breaking up. But when some boys threaten to out Wilma and Leonie during the performance of their play, the “Hühner” and the “Pygmäen” stand by their side and protect them.

The "Hühner" - Melanie, Trude, Sprotte, Wilma, Frieda

Given the fact that I’m not the target audience of this series, I only heard about the storyline when the movie was released in 2006. (You can watch a trailer of the movie here.) After seeing the movie, I flipped through the book to find out how close the movie is to the book, and found both to be similar, though a little different as the storylines had to be adjusted for the movie. Luckily, the producers of the movie still give the lesbian storyline a lot of space and seem to have put a lot of thought into it. Both the character of Wilma and what she has to go through as well as the reactions of her friends are worked out thoroughly and carefully, making the storyline very realistic and true.

When Wilma tells her friends how hard it is not to be able to talk about those feelings, about the peer pressure to have a crush on someone, but that she’s just not into Leonardo DiCaprio, it feels very familiar and close to home, as do the different reactions of her friends, which most of us have probably gotten at times. Sprotte is uncertain at first but tries to be open about it after Fred tells her that it’s not a “contagious disease”. Frieda is wondering whether Wilma has ever been in love with one of them, and Trude tries to tell Wilma that the one boy she kissed maybe wasn’t the right one. But unlike Melanie, who freaks out and doesn’t want anything to do with Wilma because she’s scared of what other people might think of her if they knew that Wilma was a lesbian, the other girls as well as the boys stick by Wilma, which – in a nice twist – suddenly makes Melanie the outsider and not Wilma. 

Wilma and Leonie

Both the book and the movie teach their young readers and audience a valuable lesson on tolerance and respect. When asked about the lesbian storyline, Cornelia Funke said that she wanted to write about love in many different forms, and that it was important to her not to forget about the girls who have this best of all feelings for another girl. Besides, she said, it would have been boring to have Wilma fall in love with a boy as well.

Thank you, Cornelia Funke, for not wanting to be boring. 

“Die wilden Hühner und die Liebe” is available both as a book and as a DVD on Amazon.de. Today, another “Hühner” movie called “Die wilden Hühner und das Leben” (“The Wild Chicken And Life”) started in German movie theaters. It’s only loosely based on the series, and there’s no information about a new love interest for Wilma or whether or not her homosexuality will be a topic again in the movie. But given the fact that Cornelia Funke was involved in the making of the movie, there’s reason for optimism. Now if only I can get myself to go see a movie in a movie theatre with a bunch of teenage girls…

Pictures: Constantin Film, München