Ulrike's Brain

Referencing sixties B-movies like THEY SAVED HITLER’S BRAIN and THE BRAIN THAT WOULD NOT DIE, ULRIKE’S BRAIN finds Doctor Julia Feifer (Susanne Sachsse) arriving at an academic conference with an organ box. Inside the box: the brain of Ulrike Meinhof, which was saved by the authorities along with the brains of the three other leaders of the RAF after their deaths in Stammheim prison. Doctor Feifer can communicate telepathically with Ulrike’s brain, which is directing her to lead a new feminist revolution. To that end, she is searching for the ideal female body to transplant Ulrike’s brain into. At the same time, her arch-rival, Detlev Schlesinger, an extreme right-wing ideologue, arrives at the conference with the ashes of Michael Kühnen, the former German neo-Nazi leader and infamous homosexual who died of AIDS in 1989. When the two Frankenstein’s monsters of the extreme left and the extreme right meet, chaos ensues.

Directed by Bruce LaBruce, Ulrike's Brain leans on a strong ensemble — Gertrud Stammheim, Susanne Sachße, Jonathan B. Johnson — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.

The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about science fiction titles of 2017.