Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a 2001 American musical comedy-drama film written for the screen and directed by John Cameron Mitchell.
Mitchell received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and the Premiere magazine Performance of the Year Award.
Luther proposes marriage to Hansel, persuading him to have a sex reassignment surgery in order to leave Communist East Germany for the West as his wife, as that was the only legal solution.
The operation is botched, however, leaving Hansel – now Hedwig – with a dysfunctional one-inch mound of flesh between her legs, the titular "Angry Inch".
That same day, it is announced that the Berlin Wall has fallen and East Germans are flooding freely into the West, meaning as material gains go, Hedwig's sacrifices have been for nothing.
Hedwig recovers from the separation by confidently accepting her identity as a woman, picking up some "odd jobs," and returning to her "first love" of music by forming a rock band composed of Korean-born Army wives.
Babysitting for "the commander of the nearby fort," she befriends Tommy Speck, a shy and misunderstood teenager questioning his Christian upbringing.
For six months, she teaches him "rock history, lyrics, grooming, and vocal training" taking him from playing the occasional guitar masses to the two of them "out-grossing monster trucks in Wichita."
Hedwig and her band, the Angry Inch (now composed of Eastern Europeans including her husband, Yitzhak), are forced to support themselves by playing in a chain of failing seafood restaurants called Bilgewater's and other small venues.
After the two of them accidentally drive Tommy's limo into a news truck, paparazzi burst onto the scene, Hedwig becomes famous and Gnosis' popularity tanks.
A brief animated sequence symbolizing the union of the separated Platonic halves leads to the final shot: Hedwig walking naked down a dark alley and into the street.
For the soundtrack, Hedwig's songs were recorded by John Cameron Mitchell (lead vocals), Stephen Trask, Miriam Shor, Bob Mould (of Hüsker Dü), Ted Liscinski, Perry L. James, Alexis Fleisig, and Eli Janney.
Tommy Gnosis' songs were recorded by Trask (lead vocals), Shor, Mould, Liscinski, James, Scott McCloud, Janney, Fleisig, and Johnny Temple.
[9] Mitchell said that his performance on the Late Show with David Letterman as Hedwig was interesting: "During rehearsal, a disembodied voice emanating from the control booth gently told me that I couldn't rip my wig off during the song ("Tear Me Down").
"[14] Chris Kaltenbach from The Baltimore Sun wrote "This is Mitchell's show, and his performance lives up to his triple billing as writer, director and star.
The film was released on DVD on December 11, 2001,[16] complete with deleted scenes, an audio commentary by Mitchell and Director of Photography Frank DeMarco, a full-length documentary "Whether You Like It Or Not: The Story of Hedwig," and the original theatrical trailer.