Mutzenbacher

Ruth Beckermann places an ad in a paper inviting people to audition for a film based on a well-known pornographic text. They read passages from an anonymously published 1906 novel, which is still controversial today due to its explicit depiction of child and female sexuality. Beckermann confronts a hundred men with excerpts from “Josefine Mutzenbacher or The Story of a Viennese Prostitute” at a time when sex is more omnipresent than ever, yet encounters a morally highly armed environment. The filmmaker, who has already questioned social power structures in earlier works, uses this setting to confront the men with their own fantasies, memories, and moral boundaries. Without props or masks, a space is created in which intimate conversations about sexuality, shame, and desire become possible. The film won the Best Film Award in the “Encounters” section at the 2022 Berlinale. It has also been shown and discussed at other international festivals. With this work, the director succeeds in creating a multi-layered portrait of male sexuality and social taboos.