It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives

Rosa von Praunheim's 1971 German film follows Daniel, a young man from the provinces who arrives in Berlin and moves through its gay milieus. He passes from one relationship and one setting to the next while a voiceover comments continuously on all of it. The film's harshness comes from its target. Praunheim criticises not only outside oppression but also the search for conformity within gay circles, the hiding, and the hierarchy built on age and appearance. It drew reaction both from opponents and from inside when it appeared. It screened in the Forum section of the Berlinale in 1971, was broadcast on WDR in 1972, and when ARD aired it in 1973 some regional channels withdrew from the transmission. Many action groups were founded in Germany and Switzerland after the screenings; the film is regarded as the starting point of the modern German gay movement. Who it's for: those interested in queer film history and the tradition of political cinema. Who it's not for: viewers expecting narrative cinema; the film is built as a manifesto and the characters are instruments of the argument.