This morning, Wim Wenders released a statement announcing that his foundation would withdraw his 1975 film "Wrong Move" from theaters because of a topless scene featuring Nastassja Kinski, who was 13 years old at the time of filming.
Wenders, the German director known for such classics as "Paris, Texas," "Wings of Desire," and most recently "Perfect Days," said in a statement posted on Instagram by the Wim Wenders Foundation: "As the only person responsible at the time for the film 'Wrong Move' that is still alive, I acknowledge that Nastassja Kinski should have been better protected at the time. For this, I apologize unreservedly, Nastassja, without any reservations.".
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In the film "Wrong Move," Kinski played a mute teenager and starred alongside Rüdiger Vogler and Hans Christian Blech. In a comment under a post on Kinski's unverified Instagram account, she responded in German, which translated into German: "Wim, after all these years, only now have people started commenting in so many newspapers, like colleagues, and now thousands, even though I asked about it so long ago.".
Kinski has been vocal about the film for years, calling on Wenders to release a new version. "It was my first film, he was my first director, and he didn't protect me," she told the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung last month.
«Wrong Move was Kinski's first film; in 1984, she starred in Paris, Texas alongside Harry Dean Stanton, and last worked with Wenders in 1993's So Close, So Far! She also appeared nude in the 1970s films The Devil's Daughters and Stay True. In 1997, she spoke out about the oversexualization she suffered as a young girl, telling W Magazine, "If I had someone to protect me, or if I felt more confident, there are certain things I wouldn't have agreed to. Nudity.".
Wenders said Wrong Move would remain inaccessible until a "mutually agreed upon solution" was found, citing the need for a "broad dialogue" with the German Film Academy and Kinski. "Our society needs to find appropriate ways to engage with controversial 20th-century films and to consider new educational processes and inclusive approaches to cinema.".
Edition Variety reached out to Kinski's team for comment but has not yet received a response.
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