Götter der Pest [Gods of the Plague] (1970) Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Gods of the Plague is the work of a very young man who has just discovered the secret pleasures of angst. It's full of the movie associations that once so amused Godard, Truffaut and Chabrol, and it's impeccably performed by members of the Fassbinder stock company.

After being released from prison, Franz Walsch picks up his old relationships – or perhaps just his old films. He returns to his girlfriend Joanna, only to leave her for Margarethe shortly afterwards. He looks for his brother Marian, whom the syndicate had ordered Günther to shoot as a traitor. He plans to rob a supermarket and is betrayed twice: out of revenge by Joanna and out of love by Margarethe. Franz and the supermarket manager are shot during the robbery; Günther, alias the Gorilla, escapes and shoots Carla, a seller of pornographic literature who had told Joanna of the planned robbery.

This film is about feelings of the way things really were in the postrevolutionary era of 1970 (Rainer Werner Fassbinder).

The Cast:
Harry Baer, Hanna Schygulla, Margarethe von Trotta, Guenther Kaufmann, Carla Aulaulu, Ingrid Caven, Jan George, Marian Seidowski, Yaak Karsunke, Micha Cochina, Hannes Gromball, Lilo Pempeit, R. W. Fassbinder.