Seduction: The Cruel Woman

Businesswoman and dominatrix Wanda (Mechthild Großmann), along with her female and male submissives, performs public BDSM spectacles in a gallery in the port of Hamburg. The bodies are relieved by luscious spanking, but Wanda's attraction is deeply addictive. Her jealous lesbian lovers and romantic partner Gregor (Udo Kier) are caught in the merciless power games of seductive Wanda. Journalist Mährsch (Peter Weibel), intending to interview Wanda, instead discovers something about his own hidden masochism and becomes a toilet slave, fully devoted to his new mistress.

Is there a safe word to break free from this woman's relentless temptation? Is it even necessary when pain brings pleasure?

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The film is inspired by the Marquis de Sade's “Justine” and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's cult novel “Venus in Fur”. (The men whose names gave rise to the terms sadism and masochism😉). This female-dominated film has two female directors-writers-cameramen – Elfi Mikesch and Monika Treut – and stars Mechthild Großmann as the dominatrix.

The film depicts various sexual fetishes, female desire and love, and power games. The film, which was provocative at the time of its release and caused very mixed reactions, is today considered an important milestone in feminism, queer self-expression, and avant-garde surrealism. In the mid-80s, lesbian and BDSM relationships were barely depicted in cinema. What made this film especially rare was the female perspective. The film depicts sadomasochism not as a pathology, but as a consciously chosen practice of women, with which the film challenged the prevailing heteronormative and masculine perspective on things.

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“Seduction: The Cruel Woman” (1985) is a warm-up for Pride Month.

With this screening, we also pay homage to the legendary star of German cinema, Udo Kier, who passed away last November, and is one of the few male actors in this film.