Ulrike Ottinger's Ticket of No Return (Bildnis einer Trinkerin - Aller jamais retour) explores the complex social and psychological construction of female identity. A woman, dressed to the hilt in haute couture clothing, embarks on a drunken sightseeing tour of Berlin. Hers is a parodic journey of female drag, what Judith Mayne called "a masquerade of the most stereotypical definitions commonly associated with femininity."

Like Ottinger's other bizarrely fabulous films, Ticket of No Return dives into a world of women in which erotic connections are emphasized. This particular world includes a chorus of three women named Exact Statistics, Social Question, and Common Sense, a bag lady named Lutze, and a cameo by Nina Hagen as the singer in a nightclub. Rarely screened in the US, this film, like last year's Johanna D'Arc of Mongolia, promises to be one of the most talked about programs in the festival.