GOETHE FILMS features core Schlingensief projects that tackle the ghosts of Europe's past, present and future – fascism, capitalism, division and reunification – in his signature no-holds-barred splatter style.

German Chainsaw Massacre: The First Hour of Reunification (Germany 1990, 63 min), directed by Christoph Schlingensief.

3 October 1990: the official celebration of German reunification. Fireworks light the sky, the masses sing the national anthem. Schlingensief slips the camera away from the festivities to “Ossi” woman Clara, who flees to the promising West in her Trabant car, leaving her husband behind with his throat cut. Arriving in the West, she becomes the target of a butcher’s clan hunting for fresh meat from the East. “German Chainsaw Massacre” is a radical comment on German reunification, comparing the capitalist market to a meat market. The film hit German cinemas on 29 November 1990 – Schlingensief had shot it within two weeks. Aside from the cynical political commentary, “German Chainsaw Massacre” is a bloody, provocative, at times hysterical homage to trash movies like Hooper’s “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, or Hitchcock’s “Psycho”.

The Holding of Skulls is not my Thing! (Germany 2001, 45 min), directed by Alexander Kluge, with Christoph Schlingensief.

“The Holding of Skulls is not my Thing” documents a phone conversation between Alexander Kluge and Christoph Schlingensief, talking about Schlingensief’s controversial Hamlet production in Zurich. We see Schlingensief on the phone against the backdrop of scenes on the Zurich stage. For his production in 2001, Schlingensief decided against “modernizing” Shakespeare’s story. Instead, he staged a classical version – but then making a radical cut to the present: into the setting of robes, crowns and daggers, he throws a group of six former extremists, who interrupt the play and announce to the audience why they broke with their neo-Nazi past.

Language: German with English subtitles

Price: Tickets $10 at TIFF Bell Lightbox in person or by phone (day-of sales only) or online (as of 10 days prior to screening)

Part of the series GOETHE FILMS: Schlingensief: Approach Those You Fear

Series co-presented with the Laser Blast Film Society & KinoVortex

All GOETHE FILMS are open to audience 18+. Viewer discretion advised.