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This film came to mind again the other day when I watched the film "Sredni Vashtar" (1981) by British director/screenwriter Andrew Birkin, whose screenplays already hold a privileged place in my physical media collection.

Undoubtedly, there are few works in recent literary history that have sparked as much controversy as Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice," written in 1912, and this short story, written a year later by Stefan Zweig under the title "Burning Secret." So much so that all the film, theater, and TV adaptations of these works have caused great controversy...

"Burning Secret" was banned and its publication prevented so many times that Adolf Hitler and the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda banned the book separately and the film adapted from it, titled "Das brennende Geheimnis, Mutter, dein Kind ruft!," separately.

This adaptation was quite risky for MGM because they actually wanted Stanley Kubrick to direct the film. They both wanted the project and feared that Kubrick, who had already generated great controversy with his film "Lolita," would take things even further with this script.

Ultimately, the film was written and directed by Andrew Birkin, but according to him, there was never a comfortable working environment on set due to the constant quarrels between Klaus Maria Brandauer and Faye Dunaway.

He even says in an interview that he made the film with David Eberts, which I didn't quite believe, but later, when I saw his videos with Hans Zimmer, I did...

This film and all the adaptations of this book are very underrated because MGM doesn't have the guts to release these films today.