Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia

Ulrike Ottinger

Known for her bold stylistic choices, eccentric casts of queer characters, and the use of musical and circus numbers, German lesbian cinema pioneer Ulrike Ottinger came to prominence with the Berlin trilogy, which features anachronistic literary adaptations (Freak Orlando, 1981; Dorian Gray in the Mirror of Yellow Press, 1984) alongside a woman drunkard’s bar-hopping odyssey through Berlin (A Ticket of No Return, 1979). Her later career saw a shift towards East and Northeast Asian cultures, including films set in Mongolia (Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia, 1989; Taiga, 1992), China (Exile Shanghai, 1997), and South Korea (The Korean Wedding Chest, 2009).