‘I want a woman!’ roars the disabled uncle in Fellinis Amarcord, from out of his tree and into the world. Embarrassed and helpless, his relatives attempt to silence him. This eruption resonates in THE HUMANITARIANS, where people with disabilities continue to lack agency to determine the structure of their desire and love.
Denied the right of self-determination, Jochen desperately defends himself against his sister’s personal intrusions. She confiscates his porn and rejects his attempts to express his sexuality, believing herself to know what her brother should and should not want better than Jochen himself. Sven is confined to a wheelchair and lives in an assisted living center for the mentally handicapped. Hindered by his disabilities, Sven’s search for a non-handicapped lover is exemplary of his larger endeavour to expand his social context as he finds himself only able to pursue an active sex life via access to prostitutes.
In opposition to society’s delegation of the mentally handicapped to a space of eternal infantitude, THE HUMANITARIANS offers a more egalitarian platform appropriate to the dignity of its sincere and fallible protagonists.

DIRECTOR  Maximilian Haslberger // PRODUCER  Martin Backhaus, Jasper Mielke // CINEMATOGRAPHY  Sebastian Mez // FILM EDITOR  Katharina Fiedler // SOUND RECORDING  Martin Backhaus // COSTUME  Margaretha Heller

Festivals
Visions du Réel in Nyon / Switzerland
First Steps 2014
DMZ International Documentary Film Festival / South Korea
DOK Leipzig / Germany
Filmfestival Queersicht Bern / Switzerland
Kinofest Lünen / Germany
One World Human Rights Film Festival Prague / Czech Republic
Thessaloniki International Film Festival / Greece
Gay Film Festival Bielefeld / Germany