Horror Vacui

Directed by Rosa von Praunheim

With Lotti Huber, Joaquin La Habana, Folkert Milster, Friedrich Steinhauer and Günter Thews

Shot in a neo-expressionist style, the film is a satire on cults of any kind. The plot follows Frankie and Hannes, a young gay couple living in Berlin. One is studying art and the other medicine. Their happy life is disrupted when Frankie attends a lecture and quickly becomes involved in a sinister cult operating as a self-help group called “Optimal Optimism”. Madame C, a former Nazi party member, is the leader of Optimal Optimism. When the cult members discovers that Frankie is gay, he is repeatedly raped by both men and women of the group. Hannes must find a way to rescue him.