Watch VoirFilms. Monika (German: Eine Mutter kämpft um ihr Kind, lit. 'A Mother Fights for Her Child') is a 1938 German melodrama film directed and written by Heinz Helbig. The story centers on a singer who relinquishes her illegitimate daughter to a German engineer in São Paulo to pursue her career, only to return eight years later as a celebrated film star and wife of a prominent surgeon, demanding custody after encountering the child on a film set.