The Future of Emily (German: Flügel und Fesseln) is a 1984 West German drama film directed by Helma Sanders-Brahms. Barbara Kosta, author of Recasting Autobiography: Women's Counterfictions in Contemporary German Literature and Film, states that The Future of Emily, along with Laputa, "pursue[s] traditional narrative patterns" compared to Germany, Pale Mother, and "lapse[s] further into awkward melodrama." Christian Schröder, author of Hildegard Knef: Mir sollten sämtliche Wunder begegnen, wrote that the film appears "very French" and "very German" at the same time and compared it to the films of Éric Rohmer.