Verkrachting

Made for and by women, this 1978 debut documentary by Mady Saks (Ademloos, Iris) presents a feminist perspective on sexual violence. Through a variety of interviews, the director powerfully illustrates what rape is according to the law, what it means to women who have experienced it, what the vice squad, psychiatrists, and medical professionals think about it, and how it is viewed through the lens of public opinion—or “male opinion,” as Saks puts it.

Five women talk about their experiences with some form of sexual violence. It becomes clear that the perpetrator is not always a stranger lurking in the bushes, but is just as likely to be the man you married, your father, or someone you know. Through their candid and often harrowing stories, the women show that rape is much more than a sexual act—it is an act of aggression, oppression, isolation, and humiliation.

Despite decades of lobbying for emancipation by the women’s movement, sexual violence against women remains an urgent and all-too-familiar issue. Some things have changed, however: some of the statements by “ordinary” men in Verkrachting seem bizarre from today’s perspective—victim blaming was then completely normal.