Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

Film director Hyun encounters a mysterious woman and asks her to be his muse. Intrigued with his daring proposal, she accepts. Soon she invites him to her villa in the country to give him some isolated space to write his screenplay. But her masochistic acts slowly consume his desire and longing. He bears escalating humiliation and pain that are inflicted on him for the sake of being with her and ultimately signs over his life to her as her slave.

While still living in Amsterdam under his birth name 'Ian Kerkhof,' Aryan Kaganof co-penned the script for his friends Victor Nieuwenhuijs and Maartje Seyferth's debut feature Venus in Furs (1995), which is undoubtedly the most faithful cinematic adaptation of the S&M-themed Leopold von Sacher-Masoch novella of the same name. A number of years later after moving back to his homeland of South Africa, Kaganof directed his own tribute to Sacher-Masoch's classic work.

Aurora Rumelin is happy because the noble writer Leopold Sacher-Masoch has asked for her hand. Little by little the marriage goes into crisis mainly because Leopold asks his wife to beat him before sexual relations and to treat him like a slave. Both spouses have lovers and, in the end, the marriage ends in divorce.

Female mistress and male slave caught in a circle of tension.

Film director Hyun encounters a mysterious woman and asks her to be his muse. Intrigued with his daring proposal, she accepts. Soon she invites him to her villa in the country to give him some isolated space to write his screenplay. But her masochistic acts slowly consume his desire and longing. He bears escalating humiliation and pain that are inflicted on him for the sake of being with her and ultimately signs over his life to her as her slave.

While still living in Amsterdam under his birth name 'Ian Kerkhof,' Aryan Kaganof co-penned the script for his friends Victor Nieuwenhuijs and Maartje Seyferth's debut feature Venus in Furs (1995), which is undoubtedly the most faithful cinematic adaptation of the S&M-themed Leopold von Sacher-Masoch novella of the same name. A number of years later after moving back to his homeland of South Africa, Kaganof directed his own tribute to Sacher-Masoch's classic work.

Aurora Rumelin is happy because the noble writer Leopold Sacher-Masoch has asked for her hand. Little by little the marriage goes into crisis mainly because Leopold asks his wife to beat him before sexual relations and to treat him like a slave. Both spouses have lovers and, in the end, the marriage ends in divorce.

Female mistress and male slave caught in a circle of tension.