Coming to theatres today, Friday, November 21: THE CIRCLE
Stefan Haupt’s docudrama about gay life in Switzerland in the 1950s and early 1960s debuted at Berlin earlier this year, where it took home both an audience award and the Teddy for Best Documentary. It has gone on to screen at Seattle, Outfest and other LGBT fests in Boston, Torino, and Freiburg, among others.
Unlike its neighbor Germany, Switzerland had no laws prohibiting homosexuality. As a result, an underground community thrived in the capital of Zurich. At the center was Der Kreis (The Circle), a homophile organization that published a magazine and organized social events for its members. Haupt’s film primarily is concerned with the story of two of its members, young teacher Ernst Ostertag and even younger drag performer Robi Rapp, who meet at a Circle ball in the mid-1950s and soon pair up. As their relationship develops, a series of sensationalized gay murders turn unwanted attention to the community, culminating in police crackdowns and the ultimate dissolution of the organization. Through it all, however, Ernst and Robi remain together, and even become the first same sex couple to marry decades later, as is revealed through the intermittent documentary elements to Haupt’s awkwardly constructed docudrama, which is decidedly more fiction than non. While their story – and the larger one of the organization – has the potential for compelling viewing, the strange decision to meld a perfectly staged fictional version with talking head interruptions proves unsuccessful. It’s also something of a headscratcher, as the scripted aspect of the story could more than hold its own – beyond paying polite respect to the real couple, the documentary elements add very little to the proceedings that isn’t already covered by the actors.
what (not) to doc 