In his director‘s statement, Rosa von Praunheim says: “I think you can show evil gays today, after the gay movement changed so much in a positive way.“ Lars embodies Dirk P., a gay serial killer who killed three men in Berlin in 2012 by giving them roofies and tried to kill two others, seems very harmless at first glance. The 30ish year old with a receding hairline just moved from Saarbrücken to Berlin with his boyfriend Roland and seems rather domestic. While Roland has sex with other men, Lars prefers to redecorate their shared apartment into a nightmare of flower motifs. They appear in the montages that keeps jumping between many different time periods – meeting each other in Saarbrücken, moving to Berlin, murders in the scene, childhood memories with grandma, and lastly, the present, the trial, and inmprisonment. Roland‘s band (trangle, ukulele, musical saw) has flowers in their hair, the new sofa is a floral nightmare, and then there‘s also the ominous image of the dark roses in front of grandma‘s apartment in Saarbrücken. As always with Praunheim, the film looks slicker than it is at first glance, which is mostly due to the laconic production design and the anti-method acting. Upon second glance, DARKROOM is a confidently interlaced story about gay life with occasional, well-placed poetic moments. It won‘t be Rosa von Praunheim‘s last film about evil gays: “one of my next films will be about the homoerotic friendship between Hitler and his childhood friend in Linz and Vienna – hopefully it will be a scandal that will arrive in cinemas on my 80th birthday in 2022.“

Eva Wildte (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy