2024 - 69th Edition

It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, but the Society in which He Lives

Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die Situation, in der er lebt

No es perverso el homosexual, sino la situación en la que vive

Rosa von Praunheim

Germany

- 1970

National premiere

Daniel, a young man from the provinces, comes to Berlin and accidentally meets Clemens. They both experience a great love, but when their relationship fails, Daniel becomes ever more immersed in the city’s underground culture. After several occasional flirts, he meets Paul in a cross-dressing bar and the latter invites him to his gay commune. There, emancipation and alternative life models are discussed, while Daniel gradually develops a mature political consciousness.<br />Rosa von Praunheim

Rosa von Praunheim

A widely and internationally acclaimed film director and author, he is considered an important representative of postmodern German cinema and a pioneer of the political gay and lesbian movement in the Federal Republic of Germany. Over the course of more than 50 years, he has directed more than 150 films. Born as Holger Mischwitzky in 1942 in Riga, Latvia, he grew up in Frankfurt am Main and has lived in Berlin since the mid-1960s. Starting in 1970, he directed films such as ‘The Bed Sausage’, which remains a cult classic to this day, and ‘It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, but the Society in which He Lives’, with which he founded the new German gay movement. In 2013 he was awarded the Berlinale Camera in the Berlin International Film Festival.

O.V. in German with English and Spanish subtitles