In an outer suburb of Munich, a group of young people try to dispel boredom. Marie (Hanna Schygulla) and Erich, Paul and Helga, Peter and Elisabeth, Rosy and Franz (Harry Baer) have their relationships and affairs with each other. The community, filled with frustrations and bourgeois clichés is shocked when Jorgos (a role played by Fassbinder himself) comes to live in the area. He rents a room from Elisabeth and enjoys the affections of Marie. The young men however react with unvarnished xenophobia to this ‘Katzelmacher’ (a Bavarian swearword for Southern European immigrant) and beats up the ‘Greek from Greece’. Aged 23, Fassbinder had already written and directed twelve films, some of which were based on plays he created with his ‘anti-theatre’. His original, very free and zesty approach, in which he was assisted by a regular team, made him the most important exponent of the ‘Neue Deutsche Welle’.
