Everything lost? On the interaction of queerness and dementia in Axel Ranisch's Dicke Mädchen (2011)

Abstract

This article explores the representation of dementia and queer relationships in the prizewinning film Dicke Mädchen (2011), which is part of German alternative cinema. It examines the various interplays, reciprocal disturbances, and intersections between age, gender and the intertwinement of female dementia and male queerness in order to illustrate how this link blurs traditional categories based on binaries and fosters the emergence of queer desires. Simultaneously, the film visually and narratively reminds its characters of the societal norms surrounding them and thus reinforces heteronormative structures, which, for the male protagonists, make a lasting queer romance impossible. Therefore, we argue that although the film challenges traditional representations of dementia, age, heteronormativity, and care, there is also a clear tendency by the film's narrative and visual framework towards the containment of the non-normative imaginary freedoms it projects. While male queerness and female dementia are first lovingly and creatively explored, they are finally subjected to expulsion and death.