The phantasm of the “pure woman” and its uncanny side stand at the center of Friederike Anders’s video Lost Memories of the Woman in White, shown at steirischer herbst ʼ97. It departs from the story of a would-be political assassin, a female schizophrenic by the name of Adelheid Streidel, who nearly killed Oskar Lafontaine, the Social Democratic candidate for the German chancellorship, at a 1990 election rally by stabbing him in the throat. The media took special note of her clothing, dubbing her “the woman in white.” 

Anders’ film presents a collage of short trailers about various archetypal women in white collected from popular media by means of a database search. The suspenseful story they build mixes fact and fiction, with traces of a woman in white also appearing in another spectacular case, the unresolved suicide or murder of Christian Democrat Uwe Barschel (found dead 1987 in the bathtub of a hotel in Geneva).

Cast: various icons of film history in notable all-in-white appearances (private VHS archive Friederike Anders), Craig Baldwin as Uwe Barschel
Written and directed by Friederike Anders
Conception and database setup: Friederike Anders (using feature film clips, documentaries from television, and self-shot material)
S-VHS camera: Friederike Anders
Editing, graphics, and sound mix: Friederike Anders
Production: UdK Berlin—UdK Frauenförderung + UdK Kommission für künstlerische und wissenschaftliche Vorhaben (KKWV) 

Link

https://2022.steirischerherbst.at/en/program/artists/3642/friederike-anders