W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism

W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism is a 1971 film by Serbian director Dušan Makavejev that explores the relationship between communist politics and sexuality, as well as exploring the life and work of Wilhelm Reich. The film intercuts documentary footage with, predominantly, a narrative about a Yugoslav woman who seduces a Soviet ice skater. Despite different settings, characters and time periods, the different elements produce a single story of human sexuality and revolution through a montage effect. The song that Vladimir sings in Russian after Milena's murder at the end of the movie is... called "François Villon's Prayer" by Bulat Okudzhava. Milena violates her proletariet convictions by pursuing the Stalin-like ice skater who represents both class repression and corruption from the West into communist beliefs. This concept is at the central themes of the film: the degradation of pure communism, the Western-like repression of free sexuality, and the ignored applicability of Reich's theories of human sexuality to personal freedom also in economic and political realms.
more