Die Niklashauser Fart [The Niklashausen Journey] (1970) - Rainer Werner Fassbinder

In The Niklashausen Journey, Fassbinder co-writes and co-directs with Michael Fengler an avant-garde – and stridently anachronistic – film about Hans Boehm, an historical shepherd who in 1476 claimed that the Virgin Mary called him to foment a holy war against the "decadent" church and upper classes. Despite a temporary success, his followers were eventually massacred and he was burned at the stake.

Can a small group of people start a proletarian revolution, asks the "Black Monk" in a leather jacket. The medieval shepherd, Hans Boehm, claims to have been called by the Virgin Mary to create a revolt against the church and the landowners. The "Black Monk" suggests that he would have more success if he dressed up Johanna and had her appear as the Virgin Mary.

To compare the political and sexual turmoil of feudal Germany with that of the modern world, Fassbinder freely, and jarringly, mixes medieval elements (including some costumes, settings, and music) with those from other time periods, including the Russian Revolution (Boehm sings a hymn about Lenin to his followers) and postwar Germany. Fassbinder himself dons jeans and a hip leather jacket to play the Socialism-spouting "Black Monk," who nudges Boehm towards revolution.