Douglas Sirk was the master of cinematic melodrama. This fascinating, emotional portrait reveals that the ultimate melodrama was Sirk’s own life. It is the key to understanding his work. He discovered Zarah Leander and made her a star in the mid-1930s. Later, in the USA, he catapulted Rock Hudson from no-name to screen icon. And in the 1950s Douglas Sirk reinvented the melodrama. But who was the man who suddenly left Hollywood at the height of his fame and moved to Switzerland? In interviews with among others Todd Haynes and hitherto unpublished excerpts from his wife’s diaries, the film gets closer to this mysterious genius. We discover a life story marked by hope, disillusionment, love and death. [FFHH22]