Tough Love
Filmmaking on the Queer Frontier

Germany / 2015 / 89'
In German with Chinese and English subtitles

Director: Rosa von Praunheim
Cast: Luise Heyer, Hanno Koffler, Katy Karrenbauer

A karate champion looks back and finds his life reduced to bitterness and numbness. In childhood, he was repeatedly abused by his parents. As an adult, he became a pimp, earned large sums of money, and was eventually sent to prison. The only constant has been his partner, the one person who gives him the courage to keep going. The film presents the life of Andreas Marquardt through interviews and dramatised reenactments, tracing a trajectory from fear and humiliation to contempt, hatred and violence. Von Praunheim reconstructs it in stylised scenes that capture West Berlin's period interiors and the deep trauma left by domestic abuse.