Great Freedom

In post-war Germany, homosexuals found little freedom as revealed in Sebastian Meise’s Jury Prize-winning drama.

Viewed in the context of other films treating gay material, this German feature is distinctive in addition to being distinguished. It is the work of Sebastian Meise, a name new to me, and he proves himself a director possessed of confidence and assurance in addition to which he is the film’s co-writer sharing that credit with Thomas Reider. Great Freedom is for most of its length set in a jail although, having started out with scenes taking place in 1968 it then incorporates episodes from both 1945 and 1957. This is explained by the fact that the central character, Hans Hoffmann (Franz Rogowski), is a gay man with a propensity for cottaging and that Paragraph 175 of the German Criminal Code, in force from 1871 to 1994, prohibited sexual acts between men and made them punishable by prison sentences. For Hans the consequence of that is a series of incarcerations. Indeed, the film’s opening shots which show him seeking sex in a toilet are presented as images in a police observation video set up to catch gay men and we learn that Hans is duly sentenced to two years.

Earlier, back in 1945, Hans had been taken straight from a concentration camp to the prison where he had been made to share a cell with Viktor (Georg Friedrich). The latter is serving a long sentence and consequently when Hans finds himself back inside he again encounters this man. Initially Viktor had shown disgust at having Hans as a companion, but coming to know one another over time gradually leads to something close to comradeship. When we get to the scenes set in 1957, they not only show this developing bond but introduce us to another imprisoned victim of Paragraph 175, Oskar (Thomas Prenn), a man already known to Hans because they had been lovers. There is also a fourth significant character who will be encountered in the 1968 footage, this being a younger gay man, Leo (Anton von Lucke), who, on finding himself in the prison, benefits from Hans seeking to protect him.

The prison seen in this film is a real one and, adopting a tone closer to documentary than to melodrama, Great Freedom plays out with a tremendous sense of authenticity both in the portrayal of the subsidiary figures who make up the prison staff and in the compelling performances by all four leading actors. Very much a film of the 21st century, this is a work that is sexually frank and one that never feels the need to argue the case for gay rights. Instead, they are seen as a natural right and the film is a stark and vivid portrayal of injustice which, entirely aptly, allows the screen to go black on the several occasions when Hans ends up in solitary. Indeed, the reality of the film’s depiction of prison life puts one in mind of a very different film set in a prison, Robert Bresson’s classic A Man Escaped (1956).

With the emphasis so firmly on the time that Hans spends in prison, one can feel that the absence of other footage deprives us of a broader picture, particularly when it comes to the question of what Oskar had meant to Hans. There is also another aspect that leaves one with questions: the film’s final scenes seem set to point in one direction but then change tack completely when Hans makes a decision that is quite unexpected. On a single viewing I am doubtful if this is a fully effective conclusion since the choice made by Hans lacks the necessary sense that it is in fact the natural outcome of what has gone before. But, regardless of that, this is a genuinely powerful work and a real credit to Sebastian Meise and his actors. The Cannes Jury Prize which it won in 2021 was amply justified.

Original title: Grosses Freiheit.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Cast: Franz Rogowski, Georg Friedrich, Anton von Lucke, Thomas Prenn, Ulrich Faßnacht, Johannes Cramer, Alfred Hartung, Klaus Hohle, Joachim Schonfeld.

Dir Sebastian Meise, Pro Benny Drechsel, Sabine Moser and Oliver Neumann, Screenplay Thomas Reider and Sebastian Meise, Ph Crystel Fournier, Pro Des Michael Randel, Ed Joana Scrinzi, Music Nils Petter Molvær, and Peter Brotzmann, Costumes Tanja Hausner and Andrea Holzl.

Freibeuter Film/Rohfilm-Mubi.
117 mins. Austria/Germany. 2021. UK Rel: 11 March 2022. Cert. 18.