Guth Gafa Documentary Festival 2008

Queen of Condoms
Switzerland/Ireland, 2007, 75 min
Directors: Silvana Ceschi, Reto Stamm

Sat 17th • Cinemobile • 2:00pm

This is a film about German Monika Krause, who caused a sensation in Cuba as the country's first state sex educator. Soon after the Cuban revolution Monika fell in love with Jesús Jiménez, a Cuban captain, and sailed to Cuba. Once there, she started to mix in the highest circles of the revolution and gained nationwide fame in her capacity as state sex educator, and through her radio and TV programmes. In this land of deeply rooted machismo, she fought for the right of women to sexual gratification, contraception and abortion, becoming known The Queen of the Condoms, loved and adored by some, hated and feared by others. Jesús finds it increasingly hard to come to terms with his wife's activities, and the marriage breaks down. When, in the 1980s, Monika starts campaigning against the marginalisation of homosexuals in Cuba, she comes into conflict with the regime. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, she flees the country with her two sons and returns to Germany. Monika still devotes a large part of her life to Cuba, but she neither can nor wants to return, and her sons travel back there on her behalf. It is through their eyes that the audience learns about the extraordinary life of Monika, Queen of the Condoms.