Director: Paul-Julien Robert.
Running Time: 93 minutes.
Synopsis: Using director Paul-Julien Robert’s birth mother as its main subject, we are taken through the history, activities and perversion that took place at Friedrichsof – a commune set up in protest against the nuclear family model in the 1970s.
MY FATHERS, MY MOTHER AND ME begins positively as Robert and his mother discuss the promiscuous nature of the commune and the positive impact this had on Paul’s life. These experiences are shown through archive footage, mixed with a look at Paul and his mother’s smiles as they watch, and this is really what the film is about.
As we travel through the story of the commune from Paul’s birth to its closing in 1991, our view is of a relationship between a mother and her son that is clearly troubled, making for compulsive viewing. It helps that Paul is a very likeable screen presence and an excellent interviewer, unafraid of asking tough questions that an outsider may have shirked.
As Robert opens up the documentary to include families of inhabitants of the commune, deserted by their sons, daughters and siblings in the 70s, and others born and raised there, it takes a dark turn – a turn from which it never looks back. As we are taken deeper and deeper into the commune and the life of its leader Otto Muehl, what is revealed will have you grabbing something, anything to hold, to hug, or to love as the true horrors are revealed.
MY FATHERS, MY MOTHER AND ME is a documentary more terrifying than most horror films. Throughout its run time it descends from a happy, positive place into a spiral of despair, disbelief and atrociousness. Disturbing, depressing and utterly compelling, it is simply unmissable.
MY FATHERS, MY MOTHER AND ME is showing Sunday 13th and Tuesday 15th October as part of the Documentary Competition. Check out all our LFF coverage here.
