‘Mutzenbacher - Ruth Beckermann’

For more than a hundred years the novel Josefine Mutzenbacher or The Story of a Viennese Whore has been the subject of controversy for its lustful depiction of child and female sexuality. With an ad in a newspaper, Ruth Beckermann announces a casting call for a film based on the novel. The film, Mutzenbacher, sees a hundred men confronted with excerpts from the book, in an age when sex is more ubiquitous than ever, and is yet at the same time met with a highly charged moral environment. 

Ruth Beckermann was born in Vienna where she (co-)founded the distribution company filmladen in 1978 in which she was active for seven years. Since 1985 she works as a writer and filmmaker. Among her films are The Paper Bridge (1987) and The Dreamed Ones (2016).Mutzenbacher premiered at the Berlin Festival (Encounters) 2022 and won the award for Best Film.   

The film will be followed by a Q&A with Ruth Beckermann.