A film portrait of the influential Bavarian actor, director, and screenwriter who publicly confessed his homosexuality, which chronologically covers all the important stages from Action-Theater to the director's early death, supplemented with anecdotes.
Acting
Fassbinder's own interviews — manipulative, vulnerable, impossible to look away.
Direction
Hendel lets contradictions breathe; no hagiography here.
Editing
Rapid-fire anecdotes that somehow cohere into tragedy.

Director
Annekatrin Hendel
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Fassbinder's 40+ films in 15 years helped define New German Cinema alongside Herzog and Wenders — but he was the only one living in a commune of collaborators he systematically destroyed.
Hanna Schygulla's barely-contained resentment speaks volumes — she was his muse, discarded, yet still showing up. That's the Fassbinder effect.