Tough Love (KINO)

A karate champion looks back and finds his life reduced to bitterness and numbness. In childhood, he was repeatedly abused by his parents. As an adult, he became a pimp, earned large sums of money, and was eventually sent to prison. The only constant presence in his life has been his partner—the one person who supports him and gives him the courage to keep going. Caught in this vicious cycle, how will he confront himself, between who he was and who he is?

The film presents the life of Andreas Marquardt through an interweaving of interviews and dramatized reenactments, tracing a trajectory from fear and humiliation to contempt, hatred, and violence. Von Praunheim reconstructs the story through highly stylized scenes, capturing the interior design aesthetics of West Berlin at the time, and revealing the deep psychological trauma left by domestic abuse.