Film

Set in a retro-futuristic totalitarian dystopia, this ultra-rare, unsung blast of cyberpunk noir stars Rainer Werner Fassbinder (in his last screen appearance) as a leopard-print-suit-wearing detective (“I always had Fassbinder in mind as a leopard, but I never told him this,” said Gremm) investigating a bomb threat at a shadowy media conglomerate—which leads him into the surreal heart of a sinister corporate conspiracy. Kamikaze ’89 plays like the art-damaged, New German Cinema answer to Hollywood’s paranoid thrillers of the 70s, complete with a synthy soundtrack by Tangerine Dream’s Edgar Froese (a BAMcinématek favorite and subject of Tangerine Dreams, a 2012 retrospective), neon-soaked, über-80s art direction, “beautifully photographed” (The New York Times) visuals by longtime Fassbinder DP Xaver Schwarzenberger, and appearances by Fassbinder muse Brigitte Mira and spaghetti western icon Franco Nero.