Hexenhaus

The film is an intimate and nuanced portrait of a small handful of lesbian women who live in the activist and feminist collective of the same name in Berlin. The collective was formed in 1981, when the house, like so many other empty houses in Berlin, was squatted by young people from the radical left milieu. Later, Hexenhaus’ resi­dents decided to transform the house into a collective specifically for women and lesbians, and it has continued to function that way for the past 40 years of its existence.

Over time, as the residents have grown older and some have moved out, it has become increasingly difficult to recruit new residents who are willing and able to live up to the collective‘s stipulation that neither children nor men (neither cis nor trans) are welcome in the house. This condition requires a lifestyle that previously appealed to a large number of lesbian women who, due to the social and political climate of the time, were childless and lived in a relatively segregated community of women/lesbians.