Franz Rogowski, Georg Friedrich, Anton von Lucke, Thomas Prenn
Please note: Great Freedom will play in-person at Broadway Cinema only.
German arthouse star Franz Rogowski (Victoria, Transit, A Hidden Life) gives another intimately involving performance in Austrian writer-director Sebastian Meise’s (Still Life) searing prison drama, winner of the Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard at Cannes and the Austrian Oscar entry for Best International Feature.
In post-war Germany, Hans (Rogowski) is repeatedly imprisoned for defying Paragraph 175, a provision of the German Criminal Code which outlawed male homosexuality from 1871 to 1969. Occasionally finding temporary lovers during his spells in high-security prison, Hans develops a more meaningful friendship with his cellmate Viktor (Georg Friedrich), and despite Viktor’s initial mistrust, over time they develop an intense and loving bond.
Cleverly spanning three intertwining timelines, Meise’s sensual, slow-burn drama reflects on a shocking historical injustice that saw over 140,000 men imprisoned and explores the terrible psychic effects of detention for something that is not a crime. Hard-hitting and uncompromising, Great Freedom is also an immensely tender love story and a brilliantly performed study of vulnerability and need.