JACK THE RIPPER is loosely based on the story of the serial killer who is said to have committed at least five murders of prostitutes in London in 1888. While the police search for the perpetrator with help and advice from the population, the Ripper finds further victims and is confronted with traumatic childhood memories.
Display of sexualized violence, voyeurism, perversion: Exploitation film is not exactly known for its subtlety and hardly anyone has understood better than Jesús Franco to trigger outrage and aversion. Why do you (still) show something like that anyway? Exploitation cinema was sometimes an answer to fallen censorship laws and changed political and legal requirements. Sex, violence, blasphemy, or the denigration of political systems such as fascism became the hallmarks of exploitation cinema. Calculated rebellion, which made decent profits with little production money. The fact that male directors primarily showed how women are molested, raped or murdered is not a peculiarity of the exploitation film — physical and psychological violence against women and misogyny is still a huge problem and part of the “glamorous” film world (anyone interested in the topic should definitely watch BRAINWASHED: SEX-CAMERA-POWER, 2022, by Nina Menkes).
Last year, 32 women were killed in Switzerland. 25 of these murders were femicides, i.e. the deliberate killing of women and girls based on their gender. Police register thousands of cases of domestic violence every year. In the canton of Aargau alone, police move out around seven times a day due to domestic violence.
JACK THE RIPPER is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, Klaus Kinski no longer exists and, unlike in the 70s and 80s, Switzerland prefers to produce easy-to-digest entertainment cinema. Let us be aware, however, that violence against women is still the order of the day in this country and that we must all actively oppose it and take decisive action. Switzerland should definitely make supercritical cinema again with this topic in mind. One that does not show women as victims from the point of view of men — but shows all of us what a society looks like, in which equality and equality are actually lived and the men, who still don't understand it and are clinging to their privileges, can see how it works.
Beware! [Sexual Assault] [Sexual Content]
