Luise Donschen’s highly inventive feature debut explores the nature of seduction and desire through a series of surprising and irreverent tableaux. Captured on rich 16mm by cinematographer Helena Wittmann, the film combines fiction, documentary, interview and performance. Moving from a portrait of a dominatrix and her clients; to a biological investigation into the mating habits of finches; via an unlikely encounter with John Malkovich (in character as Casanova himself) and some strange scenes in a singles bar straight out of a Fassbinder film, Donschen’s free-form essay on the rules of attraction explores the complexities of gender, identity, and sexuality with humour, intelligence and wit.
 
Screens with:
21,3 °C, Helena Wittmann, 2014, Germany, 16 mins
OFF, Helena Wittmann, Luise Donschen, 2018, Germany, 12 mins

This UK Premiere includes a Q&A with the sound designer Nika Breithaupt.