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

In the early 1970s, a film by Rosa von Praunheim provoked a social movement by relentlessly exposing queer life in Germany. Daniel and Clemens fall in love, move in together, and try to emulate a bourgeois marriage. When the relationship ends after four months, Daniel immerses himself more and more in Berlin's gay subculture, working at a gay café and frequenting gay parks and restrooms. Eventually, he meets Paul in a transvestite bar, who takes him to his gay commune, where alternative gay lifestyles are discussed. NOT THE HOMOSEXUAL IS PERVERSE, BUT THE SOCIETY IN WHICH HE LIVES combines documentary observations, fictional scenes, and social analysis into a radical collage that challenged the image of gay men in postwar Germany. With his open appeal for political and personal liberation, Praunheim created a milestone in queer cinema. The film broke taboos, openly showed homosexual realities for the first time, and became a key moment in the West German gay movement. The work premiered at the Berlinale in 1971, where it sparked heated controversy. It is now considered one of the most important documents of German film and social history. Numerous festivals worldwide have shown the film in retrospectives, and it has been restored and re-released several times. More than fifty years later, the film has lost none of its power—as a plea for courage, visibility, and the fight against social constraints.