Mano Destra

This article is about the film by Cleo Übelmann. For the musical notation, "mano destra", see Glossary of musical terminology. For other uses, see Destra (disambiguation).

Mano Destra (Italian for "right hand") is a 1986 Italian-language Swiss art film written, directed by and starring Cleo Uebelmann. In black and white, Mano Destra is a study of lesbian erotic objectification which depicts Uebelmann as a dominatrix.tying a woman in a lengthy series of acts of consensual bondage. The film dwells at length on the bound woman tied in each of her positions, in a series of extended almost static shots.

Mano Destra
A bound woman, a central subject of the film
Directed by	Cleo Uebelmann
Written by	Cleo Uebelmann
Starring	Cleo Uebelmann Unknown model
Release date	1986 (1986) (Switzerland)
Running time	53 minutes
Country	Switzerland
Language	Italian

Images from the film were later published in 1988 as part of a book, The Dominas - Mano Destra by the Cleo Übelmann-Group.^[1]

The music is by the Swiss electro-wave group The Vyllies [de].^[2]

Accolades

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.^[3] In New Queer Cinema, B. Ruby Rich described it as "deserving of instant cult status".^[4]

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".^[5][6]

The director Peter Strickland has cited the film as a favourite^[7] and one of his sources of inspiration for his film The Duke of Burgundy.^[8]