Mysterium des Geschlechtes: Science class or awkward date night?

Is this worth your time?

If you have a morbid curiosity for how movies used to handle 'educational' content, then sure, dive in. If you are looking for a standard romance, you are going to be very confused, and maybe a little bit traumatized by the medical footage. This isn't exactly a date night flick unless your date is a surgeon with a very strong stomach.

Mysterium des Geschlechtes is one of those movies that pretends to be a public service announcement but is really just a voyeuristic trip through a German medical clinic. The plot is thin, mostly serving as a clothesline to hang various lectures on. You have two students, Otto and Traute, who seem more interested in animal testicle transplants than each other.

There is a scene involving an actual sex reassignment surgery that just appears out of nowhere. It’s handled with this strange, matter-of-fact tone that feels jarring compared to the fluffy, slightly stiff acting. You can tell the filmmakers really wanted you to learn something, but they also knew that showing a surgery would keep the audience from falling asleep.

The pacing is all over the place. One minute we are watching a polite conversation about contraception, and the next we are looking at something that feels like it belongs in The Phantom Bullet for its sheer shock value. It lacks the cohesive flow of a modern story, but that is exactly why it sticks with you.

The medical advice feels like it was written by people who were just guessing half the time. It is fascinating in the same way a car wreck is fascinating. You see the gears turning, you see the effort, and you see how much they missed the mark.

Some of the 'science' here makes the stakes in Unashamed look positively grounded. It’s bold, sure, but it’s the kind of bold that makes you wonder what the producers were eating for lunch.

• The animal testicle transplant lecture is peak 1930s 'science.'
• The dialogue is stiff, like everyone is reading from a pamphlet they just found on the floor.
• You will definitely not learn anything medically accurate today, please do not try this at home.

I found myself zoning out during the romance and leaning in whenever the medical diagrams hit the screen. It’s an odd, clinical experience. It’s not 'good' in any traditional sense, but it’s definitely not boring. If you need a palate cleanser after watching something like The Deadline, this will certainly get the job done.

Ultimately—wait, I promised myself I wouldn't use that word. Let's just say this movie is a weird artifact. It's a relic of a time when people thought showing surgery on screen was a great way to talk about feelings. It’s weird, it’s disjointed, and I’m glad I don’t have to sit through another medical lecture quite like it again. 🧪🩺