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Ulrike’s Brain

Forum Expanded 2017
© Bruce LaBruce
Referencing sixties B-movies like They Saved Hitler’s Brain and The Brain That Would Not Die, Ulrike’s Brain finds Doctor Julia Feifer (Susanne Sachsse) arriving at an academic conference with an organ box. Inside the box: the brain of Ulrike Meinhof, which was saved by the authorities along with the brains of the three other leaders of the RAF after their deaths in Stammheim prison. Doctor Feifer can communicate telepathically with Ulrike’s brain, which is directing her to lead a new feminist revolution. To that end, she is searching for the ideal female body to transplant Ulrike’s brain into. At the same time, her arch-rival, Detlev Schlesinger, an extreme right-wing ideologue, arrives at the conference with the ashes of Michael Kühnen, the former German neo-Nazi leader and infamous homosexual who died of AIDS in 1989. When the two Frankenstein’s monsters of the extreme left and the extreme right meet, chaos ensues.
by Bruce LaBruce
with Gertrude Stammheim, Susanne Sachsse, Jonathan Johnson, Saskia Timm, Stefan Sandrock, Florian Töbe, Yves Hanke, Joseph Wolfgang Ohlert Germany / Canada 2017 German, English 55’ Colour

With

  • Gertrude Stammheim
  • Susanne Sachsse
  • Jonathan Johnson
  • Saskia Timm
  • Stefan Sandrock
  • Florian Töbe
  • Yves Hanke
  • Joseph Wolfgang Ohlert

Crew

Written and Directed by Bruce LaBruce
Cinematography Bernd Schoch, Heiko Alberti
Editing Joern Hartmann
Music BunnyCat production
Costumes Katja-Inga Baldowski
Make-Up Maria Trifu
Producers Jürgen Brüning, Bruce LaBruce, Sonja Klümper, Paula Alamillo Rodriguez, Jonathan Johnson

World sales

Jürgen Brüning Filmproduktion

Produced by

Jürgen Brüning Filmproduktion

Additional information

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Photos

Bruce LaBruce

© Saad Al-Hakkak

Born in Southampton, Canada in 1964, he attended film school in Toronto and studied film theory at York University. His film Hustler White screened in the Panorama in 1996 and was his first international cinema success. His work has often featured in the Berlinale, most recently Pierrot Lunaire which screened in the 2014 Forum Expanded and won the Teddy Award. He has also directed numerous music videos and theatre plays and contributes writing and photographs to international magazines, newspapers and websites. His work as an artist has appeared in numerous international exhibitions.

Filmography

1987 Bruce and Pepper Wayne Gacy’s Home Movies; 20 min. · Boy/Girl; 15 min. 1988 Slam!; 8 min. · I Know What It’s Like to be Dead.; 20 min. 1991 No Skin Off My Ass; 73 min. 1994 Super 8 1/2; 105 min. 1996 Hustler White; 80 min., IFB Panorama 1998 Skin Flick; 90 min. 2004 The Raspberry Reich; 90 min., IFB Panorama 2007 Otto; or, Up with Dead People; 95 min. 2008 Give Piece of Ass a Chance; 15 min. 2009 The Bad Breast; or, The Strange Case of Theda Lange; 20 min. 2010 Weekend In Alphaville; 20 min. · L.A. Zombie; 65 min. 2012 Offing Jack; 20 min. 2013 Defense de Fumer; 7 min. · Gerontophilia; 83 min. 2014 Pierrot Lunaire; 55 min., Forum Expanded 2014 2017 Refugee’s Welcome; 20 min. · The Misandrists; 90 min. · Ulrike’s Brain

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2017