HUNTING SCENES FROM BAVARIA  1969
(Jagdszenen aus Niederbayern)
Directed by Peter Fleischmann
88 minutes
In German with English subtitles

Wow, what a revealing, edgy flick this is. It throws us into the southern region of Bavaria, a totally bizarre place. It was of course in that area that the Nazi regime first began to rise, soon to spread over the entire country (and other countries). I have no idea what Bavaria is like today, but back in the 60s it certainly still had a weird and twisted mentality on many levels. Everything in this flick is played straight, but the situations are so absurd, wild and insane that the film becomes a biting black comedy. But, on the other hand, there is one aspect in this exploration of Bavarian culture that can be found in much of the Western world today - the hatred of anything foreign. In the case of this film, the targets are immigrants, women and homosexuality.

This movie, in particular, is a real blast. It totally torches and burns to the ground the entire conservative culture. Racism and sexism run rampant in a world where villagers only fear what their neighbors think of them. And the beauty of this film is its complexity - no one is pure in such an environment, those who are oppressed can also become assholes oppressing other minorities. In other words, this is the real 'Heimat' film - a dark cinematic gem, that has been suppressed and marginalized. In the cast there are two actresses who would later shoot to fame, but here they were still unknown... Angela Winkler (The Lost Honor of K. Blum) and Hanna Schygulla.

I should also mention this is also one of the favorite movies of Micheal Haneke, and you can see its influence on his film The White Ribbon. It's a movie with a raw, fresh, explosive, visceral spirit film that really breaks new ground and take us places we have never been before. This is one of the most special, and rare, movies in this series I am programming at the Goethe.

This will be a high-definition screening.