Due to its controversial plot and its nomination in the competition at the 1970 Berlin International Film Festival, the jury president that year, the American director George Stevens, demanded that the film be removed from the festival. This caused such controversy that the festival directors offered their resignation and the festival broke down before it ended.
West Germany's submission to the 43rd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film category.
Mike W comments: "There is also a very strange Moog synthesizer score, repeating an electronic loop every few minutes again." This "loop" was mainly caused by a machine fault during the recording of the music in the studio. We increased the fault mechanically - no modern effects black-box at that time! - and the result is what finally went into the music track at the mix.