THE POPE IS NO JEANSBOY (DER PAPST IST KEIN JEANSBOY)
documentary
Osterreich, 2011
Blu-Ray, 74 min. (OF Deutsch)
by Sobo Swobodnik
followed by a discussion
6. December 2011
Filmhauskino
10.00 p.m.
The documentary The Pope is No Jeansboy portrays the life of Phettberg Hermes; the survival and daily struggle of a former star who became a patronised outsider. With three strokes, a heart attack, excessive bladder trouble and an irrepressible desire to live on, it is a twelve-step crossroads and cinematic intervention in black and white. The actor, the columnist, the author, the presenter, the failed pastoral assistant, the self-confessed gay sadomasochist, the total canon of Hermes Phettberg, born Joseph Fen, who has always relentlessly thematised his life and his suffering to himself and to the world. The film gives an insight into his current existence: his life and also his slow death.