EnfantTerrible is the story of filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who dreams of making movies about the cold-hearted, archaic Federal German society whole achieving the love and respect of the outsiders of society. As he rises to become among the most important directors in Europe, his body and mind decline and he dies an early death.

Director Oskar Roehler and writer Klaus Richter have a tough task on their hands: how to take the unlikable and caustic hero and make him someone we want to learn more about and care for.  Oliver Masucci, who has the lead, is easily able to take on this task, as he’s played someone even more unlikable — Adolf Hitler himself — in the 2015 comedy Look Who’s Back.

It’s to the filmmakers credit that they did not shy from controversy. However, when the material is well-known, that’s usually not a worry. I loved the play-within-a-movie conceit of this, as so many of us only associate Fassbinder with film.

Enfant Terrible is currently playing theaters these theaters: