Zürich in the mid-1950s: The young shy teacher Ernst Ostertag becomes a member of the gay organization Der Kreis. There he gets to know the transvestite star Röbi Rapp – and immediately falls head over heels in love with him. Röbi and Ernst live through the high point and the eventual decline of the organisation, which, in the whole Europe, is seen as the symbol of gay emancipation. Ernst finds himself torn between his “bourgeois” existence and his commitment to homosexuality, for Röbi it is about his first serious love relationship. A relationship which will last a lifetime.
From the present, the film looks back to the time when the “Mother” of all European homosexual organisations had its high point until it fell apart. While the repression against homosexuals became increasingly more intense in Zurich, two young and very different men fight for their love and – together with their friends – for gay rights.
The Circle is out in cinemas on Friday.
