Ulrike S. Movies

Canadian sexploitation filmmaker Bruce LaBruce goes to Germany to write and direct the satire Raspberry Reich, inspired by real-life '70s radical group the Baader-Meinhof gang. East German dominatrix Gudrun (Susanne Sachsse) leads a revolutionary gang of her own in Berlin. She has her men kidnap the son of a rich businessman in order to gain publicity. Claiming that heterosexuality is a social norm created to keep the people down, she forces her male minions to have sex with each other. Raspberry Reich was shown at the Sundance Film Festival as part of the midnight screenings. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

More of an underground experiment than an above-ground, straightforward drama, this stylized film is about Teutonic decadence landing in and spreading around the cocaine capital of the world, Colombia. Some of the German ex-patriots delineated here have all the warmth of a Siberian winter, while some -- such as a gay-blade babbler surrounded by beautiful people of his own gender -- have all the depth of a fruit tart, and some are just fruity tarts. As these types go on and on about sex, government, justice and the lack of it, audiences might end up as alienated as the characters in the narrative. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The unfortunate Traugot (Lou Castel) suddenly finds himself sandwiched between his former lover Freya (director Helke Sander) and his new love Irmtraut (Rebecca Pauly), both women are good friends -- or were. Traugot waffles between the two women and ultimately, seems to want both, why not. Freya vacillates between exasperation, a still-burning love for the waffler, anger against him, and the desire just to leave it all behind. As the story unfolds, she takes action while under the influence of her runaway emotions, and perhaps that is the catalyst that finally shakes up Traugot and forces him to make up his mind about his potentially monogamous future. As in previous films by director Helke Sander, women's issues are subtly raised and handled appropriately, in an engaging and relevant story told with wit and a visually sensitive camera. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Underground director Lothar Lambert steps up to a slightly more mainstream comedy line in this uneven story about a wacky, middle-class family who go to their Mediterranean coastal home for a yearly summer vacation. The mother (Ulrike S.) is fascinated by an Iranian masseur, and the father becomes interested in a young, mute waiter -- while the teenage son and daughter take their parents' behavior in stride, because they know that sooner or later, everything will return to what passes for normal in their home. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Lothar Lambert wrote, directed, produced, photographed, and edited this avant-garde film in the primitive "naive" genre, which stars, along with other local Belin talent, Beate Meitner as Ulrike "S." Bern Lubowski is Ulrike's ex-husband, a man who abuses her until she finally leaves him, and Christoph Wellemeyer plays her younger son whose mission in life is to torment his mother. In addition to mistreatment at the hands of men who are the closest to her, Ulrike suffers through three operations on one eye, and a temporary boyfriend who is a crashing bore. This combination of intolerables puts her on the edge of a nervous breakdown, yet when she seeks help from psychiatrists and doctors they also fail her, needing help themselves. Ulrike has sexual desires that are detailed in nude scenes, but she is the nightmare lady of the film's title, with real nightmares at night and the makings of nightmares during the day. All these elements combine in the end, to bring her story to its emotive conclusion. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi