Fögi is a Bastard [Blu-ray]

Fögi Is a Bastard Blu-ray delivers Marcel Gisler’s brutally honest portrait of obsession, power, and desire in 1970s Zurich. Set against a backdrop of underground clubs, working-class streets, and a blistering punk soundtrack featuring The Stooges and The Velvet Underground, the film follows Beni, a sensitive 15-year-old romantic who becomes infatuated with Fögi, the charismatic frontman of local punk band The Minks.

What begins as an innocent crush, expressed through handwritten love letters, draws Beni into Fögi’s world of music, partying, and queer freedom. But as Fögi drifts from artistic ambition into drug addiction, the relationship fractures. Beni’s devotion turns into submission, pushing him into sex work to support his lover and revealing a deeply unbalanced dynamic shaped by control, dependency, and exploitation.

Unflinching in its depiction of gay male sexuality, urban alienation, and emotional vulnerability, Fögi Is a Bastard Blu-ray stands as a landmark of alternative queer cinema and uncompromised coming-of-age storytelling.

directed by: Marcel Gisler
starring: Vincent Branchet, Martin Schenkel, Urs Peter Halter, Frédéric Andrau
1998 / 94 min