Rosas Höllenfahrt

Rosa von Praunheim grew up Catholic, was an altar boy, and experienced the threat of a cruel hell for mortal sinners from strict priests in the 1950s. Now, as an older man, he wants to search for hell once again. He interviews theologians, cultural scientists, fundamentalists, and critics of religion. He also finds cruel conceptions of hell in other religions, such as Islam, Hinduism, and even Buddhism, where there are eight cold and eight hot hells. Von Praunheim stages himself as a soul wanderer through a surreal afterlife populated by sinners, saints, and other figures who vacillate between morality and lust. In doing so, he uses his unmistakable signature style: bright colors, ironic distance, and unsparing openness. The film combines personal memories with social criticism and creates a bizarre panorama of human abysses – always with a wink. HISTORY OF HELL was presented at the International Hof Film Festival in 2009 and later shown in selected cinemas in Germany. The press and audience praised the work as an unusual mixture of art film, self-confession, and theatrical spectacle.