Taxi zum Klo
(Taxi to the Toilet)

PFFB classics, DE 1980, 95 min., dt. OV + engl. UT

By: Frank Ripploh (1949-2002)

With: Frank Ripploh, Bernd Broaderup, Gitte Lederer, Hans-Gerd Mertens, Irmgard Lademacher

A gay, autobiographical cult film from the West Berlin of the 80s: director and leading actor Frank Ripploh is a teacher at a secondary school, openly gay and repeatedly confronted with prejudices and homophobia. Nevertheless, he doesn’t hide his homosexuality and at night drifts through the public toilets, saunas and gay bars of the city in search of sexual excess. His friend Bernd, on the other hand, is filled with a longing for the quiet life as a couple in the countryside. Between biting irony and melancholic wit, Frank Ripploh‘s completely independently filmed classic brings back to life the lost world of the island city of West Berlin, its excesses, freedoms and gay lifestyles. A must for all newly-arrived queer expats!