Screening Dates: Saturday, October 25, 2025, 2:00 p.m. / Wednesday, November 19, 2025, 8:00 p.m. / Wednesday, December 10, 2025, 8:00 p.m.

Director: Ulrike Ottinger
Screenplay: Ulrike Ottinger
Cast: Magdalena Montezuma, Delphine Seyrig 

Germany / 1981 / 126 min. / Color / German / English and Turkish Subtitles

Described by Ulrike Ottinger herself as, “small theater of the world”, Freak Orlando follows Orlando as we see him in different time periods, different bodies, and different identities in the “City of Freaks.” Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, the character who inspired this film, is also a traveler between different times and genders, and is a “freak” due to this instability. However, Ottinger takes her even further and places her in a surreal mythical tableau of Western culture and political history.

Uninterested in constructing a coherent and linear narrative, Ottinger essentially presents us with a collage that layers images, social issues, and historical periods that we can connect. Through this collage, with her postmodern approach that subverts norms regarding the human body and aesthetics, she reveals the fixed aspects of the world order that remain unchanged despite its transformations. 

Ottinger’s status as an interdisciplinary artist also says a lot about the film’s aesthetics and structure. The art design, reminiscent of Weimar cabarets and Bauhaus aesthetics through costumes, decor, and makeup, lies at the heart of the circus-like fantasy created. 

*We would like to thank the Goethe-Institute for its contribution to the program.
** The film will be screened within the framework of European Film Month.