Metrograph

Among Fassbinder’s most emotionally brutalizing films—and that’s saying something!—is the devastating story of a spiralling working-class transsexual, Elvira (Volker Spengler), struggling to make sense of her life after being callously cast aside by the man (Gottfried John) she’d devoted herself to completely. A blighted, beautiful, raw depiction of suffering in extremis—a key scene plays out amidst the gory mire of an abbatoir—and a deeply personal work from Fassbinder, still reeling from the recent suicide of lover Armin Meier when shooting it, and here credited as writer, director, producer, cinematographer, and co-editor. “Elegiac and complex… The most elegant release of grief transfigured into film, embodying its indiscriminate effects.” —Film Comment

Distributor: Janus Films