Great Freedom: Epic prison film about a man who is repeatedly sent to prison for his homosexual tendencies after World War II.
Film plot and background
Hans Hoffmann (Franz Rogowski) loves men. This fact is not only frowned upon in post-war Germany, but is still punishable under Paragraph 175. After his hard time in the concentration camp, he is imprisoned without a break. In prison he shares a cell with the murderer Viktor (Georg Friedrich), who actually wants nothing to do with a “175er”. Over the years, however, a certain trust will build up between Viktor and Hans, they know each other. Because Hans is a repeat offender and doesn’t let anyone tell him how to live and love.
Whether on the outside or in prison, Hans initially finds in Oskar (Thomas Penn) a man with whom he could be happy, but prison life is nothing for the squeamish man. Later, Hans will meet and fall in love with the music teacher Leo (Anton von Lucke) in prison, but deliberately keeps his distance so as not to put anyone in danger. And then there is Viktor, the cop, who has come to terms with his life behind bars, but whose drug addiction could be his undoing. It’s now up to Hans to watch his friend’s back in prison.
“Große Freiheit” – background, cast, cinema release
The infamous Paragraph 175 was in force in various forms in Germany for over 120 years between 1871 and 1994, criminalising sexual acts between two men. The tightening under the Nazi regime already made suspicion a punishable offence, followed by 10 years’ imprisonment, and the post-war period also kept the paragraph in force in almost unchanged form in the GDR until 1957 and in the FRG until 1968.
“Great Freedom” is representative of the fates of those who became victims of this abstruse criminal prosecution. About 50,000 men were sentenced under the paragraph in the FRG between 1950 and 1969.
For director Sebastian Meise, the dream cast of Franz Rogowski (“Victoria”) and Georg Friedrich (“Wilde Maus”) was already a sure thing when writing the script, and both finally agreed. The film was shot in a prison from GDR times that is no longer in use.
The premiere of “Große Freiheit” took place at the Cannes Film Festival 2021 in the sub-section “Un Certain Regard”, where the prison epic was awarded the Grand Jury Prize. The German theatrical release of “Große Freiheit” is on 18 November 2021. The drama has been selected as Austria’s entry for Best International Film at the 2022 Academy Awards.
