To Be a B-Girl

Girls who break dance are a rarity, but Jildou is one of them. She took part in her first battle at the age of 13, and now she is about to go to college. She knows that break dance is often associated with the ghetto. Maybe this is because a lot of its practitioners come from mixed backgrounds, as does she: her mother is German, her father Iraqi. Aside from her dancing, she dreams of the cliché happy life with two kids. This dynamic portrait switches from interviews and episodes from Jildou's everyday life to footage of the battles she takes part in: exciting confrontations in which the dancers challenge and comment on one another. It's all about who's the best. They dance to hip hop music, cheer, catcall, applaud and gesticulate. Relaxing in a quiet dance studio, Jildou explains the meanings of the different gestures. Boys use one of them to show the length of their manhood, just one illustration of what a male-dominated world it is. But Jildou has now formed her own crew ("How I Met a B-Girl") with girls from all over Germany. They are the only team of girls (and the only Germans) who are trying to compete in what for years has been the biggest tournament in the breakdance world: The Battle of the Year.