The Protected Men

Ecology, equality, and sustainability—when Anita (Britta Hammelstein) and Sarah (Mavie Hörbiger) found a new women’s party, they have lofty political goals. By contrast, the men around them—who appear to have been infected with a new virus—are driven by rather base motives. Sexual arousal leads to obsession, assaults, and death. When the pathogen claims the life of the chancellor as well, Anita and Sarah’s radical-feminist party takes over the reins of government on an interim basis. Research into a vaccine is rushed. But should the male gender even be saved? Director Irene von Alberti (“The Long Summer of Theory,” “City as Prey”) has created “The Protected Men,” a biting political satire about power, oppression, and gender roles. (Madly) witty and quite accurately capturing the essence of a centuries-old gender struggle, the narrative is based on the dystopian novel of the same name by Robert Merle, first published in 1974. It features playful B-movie references, refreshing narrative ideas, and feminist discourse—and, along the way, even pokes fun at the COVID-19 pandemic. This spirited satire dismantles both matriarchy and patriarchy, asking how power should actually be distributed, with what consequences, and why at all.