A wildly anarchic satire of guerrilla terrorism in which a band of leftist radicals inadvertently become puppets of the West German government, which uses them to justify its authoritarian policies.
Direction
Fassbinder's 44th film by age 33 — prolific and furious
Writing
Dialogue that weaponizes political jargon into punchlines
Acting
Udo Kier radiates unsettling aristocratic menace
Director
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during the German Autumn of 1977, Fassbinder was directly responding to the Red Army Faction's actual violence while under police surveillance himself.
The title refers to the third generation of RAF terrorists — Fassbinder argued they'd become so detached from reality they were indistinguishable from performance artists, which the film literalizes.
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