Mayas Kontra - eine Komödie ganz von heute

Maya, 23, wants to make her mark in German politics. Newly naturalized, young, motivated, and full of ideals, she joins a liberal-progressive party—and quickly realizes that principles alone don’t earn you speaking time. What counts there are patience, a competitive spirit, and rhetorical brilliance. And the courage to raise your own voice when others have long since taken the floor.

Of all people, Dr. Christian Stahl, a political heavyweight from the opposing party, becomes her adversary. When he publicly insults Maya and someone films the moment, the clip goes viral. His party orders a media-friendly damage control strategy: Stahl is to coach her in rhetoric and political self-presentation—and Maya becomes the party’s political figurehead against her will.

A wonderfully quirky relationship develops between Maya and Stahl: half verbal sparring, half rhetoric training, somewhere between trauma therapy, political coaching, and Schopenhauer. Accompanied by her boyfriend Leonard and her father—who once brought her to safety and now feels like a stranger to himself—Maya learns that it takes more than a microphone and a party membership card to truly speak.

Mutual hostility turns into an unexpected alliance. Two people who are actually supposed to contradict each other find themselves drawn to one another—and realize that there’s more to the opposing position than just an opinion. *Maya’s Counterargument*tells a biting and clever story of how public humiliation becomes a lesson in standing up for oneself—and how a young woman who is the subject of gossip becomes someone who speaks out for herself.