Wenders withdraws "Wrong Move" from circulation and apologizes to Nastassja Kinski

Remorse and Appeal: Wenders' Speech at the Film Awards

At the same time, Wenders shifted the question of how to concretely deal with the scene to a larger stage. "May one, can one, should one perhaps cut a scene if, in this case, it hurts one of my actresses whom I have greatly admired and still admire? Can a film be shortened retrospectively?" he asked the audience. He was "quite alone" with this question and "helpless." He asked the German Film Academy for a broad debate on how to deal with controversial films from the 20th century. A statement from the Academy was not immediately available.

The reaction from Kinski's circle was prompt. Her lawyer Christian Schertz criticized Wenders' speech as an attempt to evade personal responsibility. "In fact, he has once again not taken responsibility; only he alone can solve the problem," Schertz said. It was "not about censorship or cancel culture, as he suggested in his speech." Rather, the film shows a 13-year-old half-naked in a situation "who is the victim of a sexual encounter with a much older man, and that would be unthinkable today." The scene was also shot multiple times and can be easily cut out "without the film being distorted in any way."

Lawyer Schertz: "Once again, no responsibility taken"

Schertz also announced formal legal steps. "If we are not confirmed that the scene will be removed, we will sue," he said, justifying this by the violation of Kinski's personal rights as a child. His client had been seeking a personal conversation with Wenders "for years" in vain. A similar agreement, such as Schertz recently reached with NDR in the case of the "Tatort" film "Reifezeugnis" (1977), would also be possible here, he signaled.

On Wednesday, the Wim Wenders Foundation, based in Düsseldorf and the rights holder of the film, announced that "Wrong Move" would be "withdrawn from circulation." "Streaming, TV, and distribution partners are instructed not to make the film publicly available anymore." Only after an "amicable solution, also in consultation with Nastassja Kinski," should the film be released again, "even if it takes longer." The foundation also announced a "broad exchange" on how to deal with the film. Schertz welcomed the step as "long overdue" but regretted that it only came about "as a result of public pressure."

Consequence from Düsseldorf: The film is withdrawn

In an interview with the "Süddeutsche Zeitung," Kinski herself had already made it clear what she thought of the filming at the time. "Although I didn't know much at 13, I already realized that this was not okay," she said. The film is "after all the first film, he was my first director, and he didn't protect me." Kinski and Schertz have reportedly been demanding an apology and the alteration or removal of the scene since 2016. Wenders had previously rejected this, citing the zeitgeist at the time; in 2024, when Kinski's request first became public, he said that the film must be viewed under the conditions of its creation.

In 1975, Nastassja Kinski was introduced to the film by Wenders' "guiding star" at the time, Klaus Kinski, her father. "Wrong Move" tells the story of the writer Wilhelm, who embarks on a journey through Germany. In the controversial scene, the character of the young girl, played by Nastassja Kinski, is visited in her bedroom by the male protagonist, played by Rüdiger Vogler, who was over 30 years old at the time of filming. Kinski is lying on the bed wearing only her underwear, the man undresses to his underwear and lies down next to her. Wenders later worked with Kinski again, for example on the road movie "Paris, Texas" (1984) and "Faraway, So Close!" (1993).

Kinski's Perspective: "He didn't protect me"

The controversy surrounding the film is part of a series of similar debates about minors in film history. Brooke Shields was twelve years old when she played a minor prostitute in Louis Malle's "Pretty Baby" (1978) and appeared naked on camera. At the age of 14, she filmed nude and intimate scenes for "The Blue Lagoon" (1980) alongside Christopher Atkins, who was 18 at the time; Shields later recalled feeling uncomfortable and pressured on set. Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting were 15 and 16 years old for Franco Zeffirelli's adaptation of "Romeo and Juliet" (1968) and filed a $500 million lawsuit against Paramount Pictures in 2022; a court definitively dismissed the lawsuit in October 2024.

The handling of nude scenes in the film industry has fundamentally changed since the 1970s. Today, strict protective rules apply to productions involving minors: the presence of guardians on set, explicit parental consent, and specially trained "intimacy coordinators" for