| Mano Destra | |
| Director: | Cleo Übelmann |
| Starring: | Cleo Übelmann Unknown model |
| Runtime: | 53 minutes |
| Country: | Switzerland |
| Language: | Italian |
Mano Destra (Italian for "right hand") is a 1986 Italian-language Swiss art film written, directed by and starring Cleo Übelmann. In black and white, Mano Destra is a study of lesbian erotic objectification which depicts a woman tying up another woman in a lengthy act of consensual bondage.
Images from the film were later published in 1988 as part of a book, The Dominas - Mano Destra by the Cleo Übelmann-Group.[1]
In Women and the New German Cinema, Julia Knight describes it as a film which explores the liberating possibilities of sadomasochism, subverting audience expectations of what sadomasochism is like.[2] In New Queer Cinema, B. Ruby Rich described it as "deserving of instant cult status".[3]
In The Pleasure Threshold: Looking at Lesbian Pornography on Film, Cherry Smyth states that its imagery is "beyond sex", and that "like being offered an ice-cold, luscious fruit drink on a hot day, which you are forbidden to taste, this film encapsulates desire as death, as nothingness, and yet utter completeness".[4] [5]
The director Peter Strickland has cited the film as a favourite[6] and one of his sources of inspiration for his film The Duke of Burgundy.[7]