Ticket of No Return

Ticket of No Return (Bildnis einer Trinkerin) is a German drama film, directed by Ulrike Ottinger and released in 1979. The film is considered to be the first of Ottinger's "Berlin Trilogy", alongside the later films Freak Orlando and Dorian Gray in the Mirror of the Yellow Press.

An exploration of the way women's public behavior is more heavily scrutinized than men's, the film stars Tabea Blumenschein as an unnamed woman who travels to Berlin with plans to do nothing but drink alcohol until she passes out, as a Greek chorus of commentators (Magdalena Montezuma as "Social Question", Orpha Termin as "Accurate Statistics" and Monika von Cube as "Common Sense") spout facts, questions and moral judgements about her actions. Over the course of the drinking spree, she also develops a quasi-romantic relationship with another unnamed woman (Lutze), and drinks in a variety of venues including a lesbian bar where a woman invites her to dance.

The film's cast also includes Kurt Raab, Volker Spengler, Günter Meisner, Eddie Constantine, Wolf Vostell, Martin Kippenberger and Nina Hagen in supporting roles.

In 2020, the film was selected for screening in the online We Are One: A Global Film Festival.