Wim Wenders withdraws 1975 film featuring 13-year-old Nastassja Kinski topless | Wim Wenders

German director Wim Wenders withdrew his 1975 film Wrong Move from circulation due to a scene featuring a topless child actor who was 13 years old at the time of filming.

“Broadcast, TV and distribution partners have been instructed to no longer make the film available to the public,” the director said in a statement Wednesday.

The decision comes after actor Nastassja Kinski, now 65, told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper last month that she had tried unsuccessfully for 15 years to get Wenders to change the film.

Speaking at the German film awards ceremony last Friday, Wenders said that he would not shoot a scene the same way today, but Wrong Move was also a product of its time and editing it retrospectively would require a wider discussion in the film industry.

His comments sparked criticism in the German media; “It is your sole responsibility to make things right,” said filmmaker and Babylon Berlin actor Julius Feldmeier in an open letter to Wenders.

Wenders apologized to Kinski in a statement on his foundation’s website and said that the nonprofit Wim Wenders Foundation, which owns the film, would pull the film from all available distribution channels.

“As the only person responsible for Wrong Move at the time and still here, I recognize that Nastassja Kinski should have been better protected at the time,” Wenders said in his statement.

“I apologize to you unreservedly for this, Nastassja, there is no if or but,” he added.

Wenders, 80, is one of the most influential German directors of the post-war period; His award-winning films include Wings of Desire, Paris, Texas, Buena Vista Social Club and Perfect Days.

Kinski, the daughter of late Fitzcarraldo actor Klaus Kinski, made her acting debut playing a mute young acrobat in Wrong Move. She went on to work with Wenders again in 1984 in Paris, Texas, and appeared in more than 60 films in Europe and the United States.

Kinski said of Wrong Move in an interview with Süddeutsche: “It was my first film, my first director, and he didn’t protect me. Even though I didn’t know much at 13, I knew it wasn’t right.”

Kinski had previously led a successful campaign against a television film in which Das Boot director Wolfgang Petersen was shown naked at the age of 15. Kinski’s lawyer told the Der Spiegel news magazine that they had reached an agreement with publisher NDR to distribute the film.