Great Freedom
Composite Score: 85.1
Starring: Franz Rogowski, Georg Friedrich, Anton von Lucke, and Thomas Prenn
Director: Sebastian Meise
Writers: Thomas Reider and Sebastian Meise
Genres: Drama, LGBT+, History
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Box Office: $218,511 worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Great Freedom is the film from Sebastian Meise about a gay man living in Germany at the end of World War II and his experiences in the penal system that result from his sexuality. The film stars Franz Rogowski as its leading man Hans Hoffman across from Georg Friedrich as his first cellmate and eventual friend, Viktor. The film shows the evolution of the pair’s relationship over twenty-four years and three separate sentences for Hans (only one for convicted murderer Viktor) as it evolves from antagonistic to dependent over their time spent together. The film was Austria’s submission for the Best International Feature Award for the Academy Awards, making the shortlist of fifteen films before missing out on the nomination. It received acclaim for its moving portrayal of the positive impact of friendship and the negative results of the carceral system on human beings.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
Do you want clean, clear stories that develop in a linear arc? Don’t watch Great Freedom. As films go, this one ends up being deeply grounded in reality but disconnected from a set timeline, jumping between three time periods fairly regularly. This is not to say that the film is very confusing, as the initial introductions to each time period are set of with date markers, and the common characters have different hairstyles, but for someone new to films, this is probably not the easiest jumping off point. This being a film about the friendship between a gay man and a murderer only serves to distance it from even more audiences. Again, I think this film does a great job of stripping all of its characters down to just their humanity, but sexual identity and criminal activity can be alienating for some audiences, so I’ll mention it here.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
I think that this film’s two key themes – the necessity of companionship in maintaining one’s humanity and the way that the carceral system works to dehumanize its inhabitants – might be some of the most well-executed in the recent history of films. From the jump, we see the dehumanizing nature of the criminal justice system, shooting illicit rendezvouses from a hidden camera in a bathroom to incriminate homosexuals, and then it continues from there. The ways that both Hans and Viktor are broken by the system they are trapped in play out on the screen over and over as they are denied companionship and rehabilitation and any type of alternative to living as a simple cog in the wheel of the prison. Hans’s rotating door of stints in prison feel just as stuck as Viktor’s life sentence for murder, and it is only their relationship that keeps either man going by the time it’s all said and done. That development from enemies to friends to something deeper showcases the humanity of the two men who have been broken by the system but who maintain that shred of humanity through their mutual connection. It’s a powerful reminder that is nailed in execution by the film’s two leads. Both men play their roles to perfection, achieving a haunting, challenging, and moving effect on the audience by the time the credits roll, and I look forward to seeing more from both of them in the coming years.
Great Freedom’s thematic exploration of humanity and the impact of both incarceration and companionship on our humanity is one of the most profound bits of filmmaking in recent years, stepping beyond its premise to tell a broad truth about people and the systems that we inhabit, achieving greatness in the process. Its nonlinear narrative against such a seemingly grounded storyline might be difficult for some audiences to fully engage with, but those who do will be left with something that leaves you hopeless and hopeful at the same time. This film can currently be streamed with a Mubi subscription or rented on VUDU or Apple TV for anyone trying to watch it soon.
