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

German director Wim Wenders has withdrawn from circulation his 1975 film Wrong Move, because of a scene featuring a child actor topless who was 13 years old at the time of filming.

“Streaming, TV and distribution partners have been instructed to no longer make the film publicly accessible,” the director said in a statement released on Wednesday.

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

Wim Wenders apologised ‘unreservedly’ to Nastassja Kinski. Photograph: Scott A Garfitt/AP

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

His comments sparked criticism across German media, with fellow film-maker and Babylon Berlin actor Julius Feldmeier writing in an open letter to Wenders that “it’s your responsibility alone to set things right”.

In a statement on his foundation’s website, Wenders apologised to Kinski and said the non-profit Wim Wenders Foundation, which owns the film, would withdraw it from all current channels of distribution.

“As the only person responsible at the time for Wrong Move who is still here, I recognise that Nastassja Kinski should have been better protected back then,” Wenders said in the statement.

“For that, I apologise to you, Nastassja, unreservedly, no ifs or buts,” he added.

Nastassja Kinski, left, and Wim Wenders after the screening of Paris, Texas at the Cannes film festival in 1984. Photograph: Michel Lipchitz/AP