Don't say goodbye - it's bad luck
Continuing my trip up The Guardian's top 50 films of 2022
#37 : Große Freiheit (Great Freedom)
Intriguing German drama about a former concentration camp inmate imprisoned after the war for gay sex acts, and who develops a complex relationship with his straight cellmate.
And now we're in German - this list so far is not loving English language films, with other languages currently leading 9-5. I'd have to say that this very much sounds like a film I'd have avoided, but it's interesting that it's the second film on the list that has got me discussing concentration camps and gay sex. I'm just hoping this one is more "fun" than the last one - but at nearly 2 hours long, I'd say my hopes are not high.
So, Hans is German and gay at a time (1968) when that wasn't a great combination - he gets 24 months inside for various acts in a public toilet that just happened to have a camera mounted behind the mirror to catch people like Hans. And well, prison doesn't look a lot of fun, I can tell you - solitary confinement happens in the dark in your underpants. It's also, for quite some time, not very interesting for us either.
Ah, but then all of a sudden, it gets a bit more interesting because it shifts back to 1945 when Hans is in a different prison (for the same "crime", and I imagine the sentences were longer back then) and it's clear he's only just got out of a concentration camp - and I'll give you one guess as to why he was in there as well. And his cellmate Viktor is in for murder and initially very anti-gay but, wouldn't you know it, a softening of opinions may just take place across the film.
We spend the rest of the film skipping backwards and forwards in time as Hans is in and out of jail whilst Viktor is a constant occupant. And the whole thing is actually, to my surprise, an enjoyably engaging film. It doesn't attempt to get the soapbox out to have anything particularly deep and meaningful to say but it's surprisingly tender and subtle. In the absence of strong comment, it makes you think about the sorts of things the characters are going through and well, "freedom" as a concept, particularly in the light of those that don't have it. It also has an excellent ending which is enjoyably unexpected and open-ended (and surprisingly dialogue free).
It's well written and filmed (directed by Sebastian Meise) - you certainly wouldn't accuse it of being a chatty film, but the meaningful pauses work well and the scenes in different times are handled well with effective use of make-up and hairstyles to date the characters. It is, at times, unsurprisingly homosexual, but very infrequently throughout the film - but of course the scenes perfectly matched up with my eldest entering in the room, which resulted in her asking "What ARE you watching?"
It's Hans' film to own and Franz Rogowski is excellent in the role - he's really very good indeed. I'm not aware of any of his previous work, but he's been in a Michael Haneke and a Terence Malick film and picked up quite a few awards over the years - including a couple for this and he thoroughly deserves them. Georg Friedrich is also great as Viktor - it's a slightly less weighty role, but he takes the opportunities he's given to impress and he won a couple of awards for his work as well. There are other people in the film, but I couldn't tell you what any of them were called - there's only really a couple of other roles that really add anything to the story.
Wikipedia tells me the film did well on the European film circuit, winning the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes (which seems to be a prize for films I've never heard of), the Golden Giraldillo at Seville (whatever one of them is) and it was shortlisted for the best Foreign Language Film Oscar. And do you know what? It thoroughly deserved all the acclaim - my expectations were pretty low for this but, after a slow start, I really enjoyed it and found it a thoughtful and moving film. This is exactly the sort of foreign language film I want this list to uncover for me, but it so rarely does - so thank you to Sebastian, Franz and Georg for massively exceeding expectations.
At time of writing, this is available to stream on MUBI or to rent at most of the usual locations, which is unusual for a foreign language film so credit to everyone for making this available to a wider audience - most of whom will probably steer well clear of it, but I'm sure there are going to far worse films further up the list.
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