Noastassja Kinski65 years old, one of the most famous German actresses of the Eighties and Nineties, has publicly relaunched her request to delete a scene from the film False Movement by Wim Wenders, filmed in 1975 when she was just 13 years old. The scene, in which the young actress appears topless while an adult man lies beside her, slaps her and caresses her, it still causes her “enormous discomfort” today, as he stated to Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The controversy erupted in Berlin on May 29, 2026, when Wenders, 80, received the Lola to careerthe most important award in German cinema, and chose to respond publicly in front of 1,900 guests, without however giving up anything on the actress’s request. And Germany isn’t there.
The scene of False Movement that Natassja Kinski has wanted to erase for ten years
The story begins in 1975, but the pain has never gone away. Nastassja Kinski was just thirteen when Wenders chose her for the role of Mignon in False Movementroad movie based on a novel by Peter Handke and inspired by Wilhelm Meister by Goethe. On the set, the young actress was called to shoot one several times sequence of about two minutes in which she appeared topless next to an adult actor. After filming, he locked himself in the bathroom to cry. His mother was not present on the set. According to Nastassja Kinski, she was not even informed of the content of the scene before signing the consent for her daughter’s participation.
The then 13 year old Natassja Kinski with her colleague Rüdiger Vogler in a scene from “False Movement” by Wim Wenders.
“Even though at thirteen I still didn’t know much, I immediately understood that it wasn’t normal,” he told the Bavarian newspaper. For at least ten years, the actress has formally requested that the sequence be removed from the film and that she receive compensation. For fifteen years, Wenders responded through his lawyers, refusing any direct meeting or agreement. Only in 2024 did he break his silence, admitting that he would no longer shoot that scene today, but without taking any concrete steps.
Wim Wenders’ speech at the ceremony that triggered the storm
On May 29, 2026, Wenders addressed the topic for the first time in public, during the acceptance speech for the Lola for lifetime achievement. He admitted that False Movement represents “a difficult chapter in his life” and that today sensibilities have changed. But the words that made the most noise were others: «I can’t blame the young man I was then for anything»he said, explaining that he wanted to make cinema “in the Zeitgeist”in the spirit of the times.
And then the move that divided the room: instead of taking responsibility for the decision, Wenders left the choice of what to do with the scene to the entire German film industryasking the audience: «How to manage the cinematographic heritage? Can and should we cut a scene that hurt an actress? I don’t want to carry the burden alone». He concluded by addressing the Academy: “You decide.” The audience applauded him. Kinski, upon hearing the news, commented: «If I had been in his place I would have said: I apologize and I will do everything to ensure that this scene is no longer widespread on the platforms. He didn’t, and yet he could. It’s his film.”
Wim Wenders with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Deutscher Filmpreis. (Photo by Christoph Soeder/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Germany is divided: art, consensus and responsibility
The speech opened a clear rift in the German press and cultural community. The progressive Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote that even as a “sullen 29-year-old” Wenders should have known that Natassja Kinski «was not a woman. She was a little girl”. The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung took an equally clear position: «It’s not about bowing to culture wokebut to understand that a thirteen-year-old was sexualized and stripped naked in front of the cameras.” Film historian Annette Brauerhoch, interviewed by public radio Deutschlandfunk Kulturtalked about «flag of sexual liberation which in the Seventies hid a patriarchal climate in which young girls were exploited»defining the Wenders’ speech “childish” and “inappropriate”.
Nastassja Kinski in 2025. (credit: ddp/pazimedia)
Kinski’s lawyer, Christian Schertz, announced that this time formal proceedings will be taken: «We ask that the sequence be cut, because there was no legal consent. Nastassja was a minor, her mother was absent and was not informed of the scene, which also does not appear in Handke’s original novel.”
What the law says today about the Kinski-Wenders case
Today, in Germany as in Italy, the protection of minors on the film set is regulated by specific rules which require the presence of a legal guardian e explicitly prohibit nude or sexual scenes with actors under 18regardless of parental consent. In 1975, these rules did not exist or were applied in a completely discretionary manner.
Wim Wenders and Nastassja Kinski in Cannes in 1987. (Photo by Pool ARNAL/URLI/GARCIA/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
The Kinski-Wenders case is therefore also a borderline case on right to be forgotten applied to cinema: Does a person who was a minor at the time of the filming have the right to request the removal of images depicting them in a sexually explicit manner? According to most European law experts, the answer is yesprecisely because the consent of a parent cannot replace the informed consent of the person directly involved, who was a child at the time. Nastassja Kinski, who later worked with Wenders in Paris, Texas (Palme d’Or in Cannes 1984) and in So far, so close (1993), he doesn’t ask to rewrite the history of cinema. She asks to no longer be exposed, on today’s platforms, in images shot when she was thirteen.
Meanwhile False Movement is still available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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