Of Special Merit (1968)

Overview

An attack on a piece of reactionary German legislation discriminating against young film directors. The film features a head-on, close-up shot of a penis ‘mouthing’ the parliamentary defense of the law by its author. A landmark in political pamphleteering, the film was selected for the 1968 Oberhausen International Short Film Festival by a committee of leading German critics and promptly banned by the city government, causing the withdrawal of almost all German directors from the festival and a national scandal. The title satirically refers to the official certificate of ‘Particularly Valuable’ given each year to the best film shorts by an Establishment selection.