In New York, a new danger looms in what is hardly the world’s safest city. In a dingy hotel – pay by the hour – a condom strikes. It makes no distinction between good and bad, gay or straight, black or white. Inspector Luigi Mackeroni is put onto the case. As a gay cop he is the logical choice to investigate it. When he comes across an attractive boy and feels like a quicky, the condom almost gets him. He escapes by the skin of his teeth and minus one ball, but it is now a matter of honour for Mackeroni. He sets out to investigate the gay scene, even if no one back at the station believes what he says. The trail leads to Professor Boris Smirnoff.Kondom des Grauens is a disrespectful metaphor for AIDS. A metaphor as simple as a Gordian knot, of course. The film isbased on the books Das Kondom des Grauens and Bis auf der Knochen by comic-script author Ralph König and provides a pastiche on hard-boiled American cop films and series such as Kojak and Hill Street Blues. Genres such as film-noir, horror, comedy and porn are mixed with gay abandon. Director Walz’s film puts him in the company of Christoph Schlingensief and Jörg Buttgereit, whose political splatter films have previously been screened at the festival.
