The Complaint of an Empress was produced between October 1987 and April 1989. It is the first film by choreographer Pina Bausch, who was born in Solingen in 1940 and has died on 30 June this year. The general framework is set by the changing seasons - autumn, winter and spring.The film's inner structure reflects Pina Bausch's method of working as developed with the Wuppertal Theatre of Dance during the 1973/74 season. The film consequently does not tell a story, but is made up of various scenes put together as a collage reflecting certain moods and invoking different associations. The film scenes, some of which are thoroughly absurd, are set in different locations, such as the woods and fields around Wuppertal, the city centre, the suspension railway, a carpet shop, a greenhouse and the rehearsal room in a former cinema (Wuppertal's "Lichtburg"). Eva-Elisabeth Fischer