Ms. 45

Directed by Abel Ferrara | 81 minutes | R 18+ | 45th Anniversary |

8:15pm Friday, 15 May | Balam Balam Place - Cinema 1 | Buy Tickets | Buy Passes

Abel Ferrara and Zoe Lund's rape-revenge classic returns to the grindhouse in honour of its 45th anniversary!

In Abel Ferrara's infamous and shocking noir-tinged revenge thriller, a timid, mute seamstress (expertly captured by the incomparable Zoë Lund, credited here as Zoe Tamerlis) becomes a violent agent of revenge for wronged women, after being attacked twice (by two different men) in one day. Her weapon of choice? A confiscated .45 caliber pistol.

Critically detested upon release, Ms. 45 is now considered one of the great underground/ exploitation films of the '80s; a shocking and powerful treatise on male violence and its effects, regarded by Kier-La Janisse (House of Psychotic Women) as "the most integral film of this oft-maligned subgenre", with our golden GOAT Alexandra Heller Nicholas noting its lingering impact "a testament to the power of Tamerlis/Lund's performance, driven by a fundamental belief in the capacity for film to inspire radical ideological change".

SIMILAR: Promising Young Woman, Taxi Driver, I Spit On Your Grave, Maniac, Repulsion, Thriller: A Cruel Picture

"The sexual politics of MS. 45 are blunt and easy to read, and the picture is riotously cathartic." - Stephanie Zacharek, The Village Voice

"With Grand Guignol relish, Ferrara depicts a city in the throes of a Wild West lawlessness that invites vigilante action." - Richard Brody, The New Yorker

CONTENT WARNING: Sexual violence

Country: United States
Year: 1981
Language: English