Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven

Brigitte Mira, unforgettable as the widow embarking on forbidden love in Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, returns as Emma Küsters, the wife of a factory worker who inexplicably went mad and killed his boss’s son and himself. Unable to fathom her husband’s deeds, Frau Küsters finds herself at the center of a firestorm, exploited by journalists grasping for a story, her daughter (Ingrid Caven), who hopes the publicity will launch her singing career, and a seemingly benevolent couple (Fassbinder regulars Margit Carstensen and Karlheinz Böhm), who hope to recruit her into the Communist Party. Vincent Canby called this jet-black satire “a witty, spare, beautifully performed political comedy,” and Fassbinder’s despairing view of humanity is given voice by the disheartened Mother Küsters: “Everybody is out for something. Once you realize that, everything is much simpler.”