WR — Mysteries of the Organism

In Dusan Makavejev’s controversial and explicit WR - Mysteries of the Organism (1971), ‘WR’ is Wilhelm Reich, the Marxist psychoanalyst who preached sexual enlightenment as a gateway to a better society. Reich is a ‘intellectual maverick’ and ‘sexual pioneer’, and theorist of ‘Orgone energy’ and ‘world revolution’. Loosely inspired by Reich’s The Function of the Orgasm, WR stages an encounter between psychotherapy and Marxism, sexual permissiveness and socialism. Juxtaposing hippie America and cold war Yugoslavia, it is a film of ideas and sensations which speaks to the contemporary world. It was banned in Yugoslavia, under pressure from Moscow, as politically offensive. This book explores the film and how its spectators interact with it.