On the brink of her 30th birthday, Fanny feels the door to marital happiness closing on her. She is obsessed with death and even visits evening classes on dying, so it seems fitting that she encounters a skeleton in the malfunctioning elevator of her apartment building. The skeleton is her neighbour Orfeo, a Black, gay, self-declared psychic, who convinces her that she is about to meet "him". But is it really Lothar, the new yuppie apartment manager ...?
Acting
Schrader and Sanoussi-Bliss's electric odd-couple chemistry.
Direction
Dörrie's compassionate gaze at lonely urban souls.
Production
Gritty pre-gentrification Berlin as character.
Director
Doris Dörrie
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Dörrie was one of few prominent German female directors in the 90s; this film quietly centers queer Black subjectivity alongside Fanny's white hetero anxiety.
The 'voodoo' elements read differently now—some critics found them exoticizing, others read Orfeo as subverting German racial projections through deliberate camp performance.
No ratings yet
Sign in to join the discussion — comments are spoiler-gated to your watch progress.
Discussion starters
DE
