Starring: Lorenz Hochhuth, Cino Djavid, Gustav Schmidt, Oscar Hope
Director: Hannes Hirsch
Country: Germany
UK Distributor: TLA Releasing
Moritz (Hochhuth) and his boyfriend (Schmidt) have just arrived in Berlin, but having experienced the hedonistic promiscuity of the city’s nightlife, it isn’t long before they split. Though Moritz mourns the end of their relationship, he throws himself fully into this new life of sex, drugs and licentiousness. While he undergoes a metamorphosis, his ex forges a different and more wholesome path, but both find themselves completely changed by the city’s infamous underbelly.
With its very opening shot sexually explicit, it is very clear from the beginning that this is a movie that will not hold back on its content. Every configuration of sexual proclivity is then episodically played out, with Moritz gradually becoming what had previously shocked him. Early in the film, a straight man on a hook-up says to him “We are all perverted in some way”, just before he incites him to strike his slave (who is paying them both for this service). It’s only a matter of time before Moritz proves this to be true.
Not for the faint-hearted, this is the side of the LGBT+ Community that the preacher warned your Nan about. Dark, sordid and completely unapologetic, Bruce LaBruce would be proud of its levels of subversion, but there’s very little that’s sexy about its sexual content. Low-stakes and somewhat ambivalent, this is the Germanic sister to 2018’s Sauvage, but without even half of its clout.
UK Release: Out now to watch on VOD on Dekkoo, released by TLA Releasing
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