THE PROTECTED MEN

By Irene VON ALBERTI

THE PLAYMAKER MUNICH (A BRAND OF B.A. PRODUKTION GMBH) - as SALES All rights, World

Social issues - Completed 2024

Germany, shortly before elections – a mysterious disease outbreak afflicting only men strikes. Differences between the sexes long believed to have been overcome re-emerge, shaking society to its core. A political satire based on the novel „Les hommes protégés“ (The Virility Factor) by Robert Merle.

Festivals
& Awards

Munich International Film Festival 2024
    • Year of production
    • 2024
    • Genres
    • Social issues, Comedy
    • Countries
    • GERMANY
    • Languages
    • GERMAN
    • Budget
    • 1 - 3 M$
    • Duration
    • 104 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Irene VON ALBERTI
    • Writer(s)
    • Irene VON ALBERTI
    • Producer(s)
    • Frieder SCHLAICH (Filmgalerie 451 GmbH & Co. KG)
    • Synopsis
    • Germany, shortly before elections. Anita Martinelli and Sarah Bedford are pursuing grand political goals with their newly founded women’s party FEM. They are campaigning for a new system in which ecology, equality and sustainability have top priority. Yet during the election campaign, a new kind of disease breaks out, infecting only men. Differences between the sexes long believed to have been overcome now shake the very foundations of the society. When the chancellor falls victim to the virus, women take over the government. Anita Martinelli’s husband Ralph, an experienced virologist, is to develop a vaccine against the virus with his team in a remote, well-guarded forest laboratory. While the self-proclaimed chancellor Bedford secretly boycotts the work on the vaccine, Anita Martinelli and a group of other women decide to stop the repressive government’s plans. A counter-movement forms, fueled by a strong utopian desire for a better society. They rescue Ralph Martinelli and the other “protected men” in a spectacular escape from the lab and bring him and the serum to safety. The last surviving men are successfully vaccinated and the man-hating chancellor is toppled. With the remaining men, the women start over, endeavoring to create a better future.