How Do We Talk About #MeToo Before #MeToo Existed?

In Arthur Schnitzler’s novella, written 100 years ago, there is no mention of #MeToo to scandalize a behavior in which the man exercises his privileges as power over the young woman’s body. Leonie Böhm’s production, featuring Julia Riedler, explores the material from a contemporary perspective, thereby opening up a narrative that also includes Helke Sanders’ 1989 film *Die Deutschen und ihre Männer – Bericht aus Bonn*:

How does one speak of something that, in a patriarchal culture, is publicly doubted, has its perpetrator-victim dynamic reversed, and is hushed up?

Die Deutschen und ihre Männer – Bericht aus Bonn finds an extraordinarily original form for this. In search of a solution, Sanders’ film takes the problem to those who cause it. Those without power have humor—and leave the Bonn Republic, from Gerhart Baum (FDP) to Werner Sonne (ARD), struggling to explain itself.

Film starring

Renée Felden, Luise F. Pusch, Claudia von Alemann, Helke Sander

Helke Sander – Director, Screenplay, Producer

Lilly Grote – cinematography

Helke Sander, Claudia Vogeler, Wolfgang Heine – Editing

Mia Schmidt – Music

Volker Zeigermann, Kurt Eggmann, Csaba Kuksar, Ursula Ollendorf – Sound

• West Germany 1989 – Production
• 98 min – Running time

Introduction by

• Matthias Dell – Theater, Film, and Media Critic

(Introduction in German with English translation, film in German with English subtitles)