The Raspberry Reich

Set in Berlin, Bruce LaBruce’s film centres on a group of terrorists who are working on nothing less than a gay revolution. Calling themselves the proponents of “radical chic”, they cite Germany’s Red Army Faction as their role models. Their armed struggle commences with a spectacular kidnapping. Their victim is Patrick, whose father is one of Germany’s richest bankers. However, not everything goes according to plan; in fact, as a result of the general mayhem, kidnapper Clyde winds up with the hostage Patrick in the boot of the stolen getaway car . . .
Unbeknown to Clyde’s comrades, it seems that this happenstance was anything but a coincidence. Having become lovers whilst Clyde had Patrick under surveillance, the two quickly decided to run off together after the heist. Something else the kidnappers don’t know is that their hostage is worthless as far as they are concerned: angered at his son’s homosexuality, Clyde’s father has decided he wants nothing to do with his ‘failed’ offspring.
Meanwhile, Gudrun, the activists’ leader and an impassioned follower of Wilhelm Reich, never tires of preaching her theses. Monogamy, she pronounces, is a bourgeois construct, and heterosexuality the “opiate of the masses”. For this reason, she forces her male comrades-in-arms to have sex with each other. This, she believes, is the only way they can put their revolutionary zeal to the test. Even her own boyfriend, Holger, is obliged to join in – much to his chagrin.
Gudrun is hoping to distribute the expected ransom money among the impoverished proletariat and so win them over to her cause. But Patrick and Clyde have other plans. Following their successful escape the two lovers embark upon a series of bank raids . . .
by Bruce LaBruce
with Susanne Sachsse, Daniel Bätscher, Daniel Fettig, Andreas Rupprecht, Dean Stathis, Anton Z. Risan
Germany 2004 90’

Additional information

Download additional information