Watch In a Year with 13 Moons

In a Year with 13 Moons is a German film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and released in 1978. The film tells the story of Elvira Weishaupt, a transgender woman who undergoes a painful journey of self-discovery and tries to come to terms with her isolated existence. The story is set in Frankfurt, Germany in the 1970s, where Elvira is dealing with a gamut of issues, from solitude and alienation to identity and acceptance. After being abandoned by her lover and stripped of all her possessions, Elvira feels that she does not belong anywhere and is not accepted by others. This feeling is compounded by her inability to reconcile with her gender identity, which causes her immense emotional and mental anguish.

In the depths of her despair, Elvira makes the impulsive decision to undergo a sex change operation to become a woman. With this decision, she hopes to find a sense of belonging and purpose in life. However, the surgery proves to be a bitter disappointment, and she realizes that her problems run much deeper than her physical appearance.

Over the course of the next year, Elvira tries to come to terms with her new identity, but her sense of identity remains elusive. She finds solace in her relationships with others, but these relationships are often fleeting and superficial. She has sexual encounters with women and men, but these encounters do not bring her the emotional fulfillment that she craves. She also struggles with past traumas, including the suicide of her father, and the abuse she faced as a child.

As Elvira's emotional and mental state deteriorates, her life spirals increasingly out of control. She becomes involved in a seedy underworld of drugs, prostitution, and transvestite cabarets. She begins to lose touch with reality and has hallucinations and delusions that further exacerbate her problems.

Throughout the film, Fassbinder uses a variety of cinematic techniques to highlight the internal struggles of his protagonist. He employs a disjointed narrative structure that jumps back and forth in time, reflecting Elvira's fragmented sense of self. The performances of the actors, particularly the lead actor Volker Spengler, are also noteworthy for their intensity and depth.

In a Year with 13 Moons is a bleak and challenging film that explores themes of identity, alienation, and existential dread. It is a powerful portrayal of the struggles faced by transgender individuals and the societal pressures that force them to conform to traditional notions of gender. Ultimately, the film is a meditation on the human condition, and the search for meaning and purpose in a world that often seems indifferent to our struggles.