The Raspberry Reich

"The Raspberry Reich" is a film about 'radical chic', specifically the phenomenon of the modern left in Germany adopting the signifiers and postures of extreme left wing movements of the seventies, particularly the Red Army Faction, also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang. The movie starts off with the abduction by a gang of bumbling, would-be terrorists of Patrick, a young man who is the son of one of the wealthiest bankers in Germany. A scene of chaos and slapstick humour ensues in which Clyde, one of the aspiring terrorists – or activists, as they prefer to refer to themselves – accidentally hand-cuffs himself to the kidnapping victim and is forced to join him in the trunk of their stolen BMW. Unbeknownst to the rest of the gang, Clyde, whose job it was to follow Patrick and report his whereabouts to his cohorts, has already had a sexual liason with Patrick, and the two young men are already planning Patrick’s escape as soon as the abduction takes place. The gang does not realize that Patrick’s father disowned and disinherited him when Patrick came out as gay, and therefore he has no value as a hostage.