A contemporary classic about female dilemmas in a modern world. The famous designer Petra von Kant leads a lonely life of beauty. After two failed marriages, her only company is the mute, suppressed assistant Marlene. Seeing that Petra no longer has a husband, she finds it convenient to fall in love with a woman. She commences a relationship with young Karin who she offers a career in the fashion world. However, Karin has her own agenda and will not be controlled. Petra is trapped in her own web of supremacy and fervour. Petra von Kant becomes a victim of love’s obsessing passion in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s riveting drama from 1971. The longing after love is hardly compatible with the need to dominate or be suppressed, and power relations are the core in Petra von Kant’s affairs. Can we accept each other as equals in a relationship? And if so, at what cost? Is independency and freedom possible in love matters, or is it the fight over who has the power that dominates?
