Without these actors, a film so uncompromisingly true to its subject would wither on the vine. With these two, however, the subtle play of feeling between them is gripping.

| Sep 16, 2023

Meise performs all the signature movements of Almodóvar, Wong Kar Wai, Reynaldo Arenas or Pedro Lemebel adding an extra delay, as in a tragic tai-chi of Hanekian discipline.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Oct 30, 2022

The title Great Freedom turns out to be an ironic sentence though it is also [where one finds] the light within the tunnel. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jul 11, 2022

Great Freedom finds light inside darkness, even if it ends up being a fluorescent... A strangely romantic friendship between a proud homosexual and an old murderer who accompanies him on his Via Crucis behind bars. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jun 15, 2022

As accomplished as the storytelling is, it is the performance from Rogowski that is the true marvel.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Jun 5, 2022

Tenderness rises in unexpected ways and during the worst of circumstances… the result is both unsettling and moving. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 11, 2022

A modern day masterpiece.

| May 11, 2022

Journeys through a labyrinthic Kafkian universe with the complexity Orwell's existentialism… a great love story in all its meaning. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 9/10 | May 10, 2022

Well acted, interpersonal prison drama--low key, tender and sexually explicit in short bursts.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 28, 2022

Its a beautiful, sensitive and touching picture that more than deserves its place in the queer cinema history.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 27, 2022

Franz Rogowski is spectacular in this compassionate tale that explores the resilience of the human spirit. Full Review in Spanish

| Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 23, 2022

It's ... personal and intimate in examining how the institutional denial of an individual's worth ... affects the core of a person.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 22, 2022

Gradually, a story of bittersweet beauty and unexpected tenderness emerges.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 21, 2022

It’s a story that spans a quarter century, encompasses death and cruelty as well as moments of humor and tenderness. But throughout it remains resistant to melodrama or stylistic showiness, so the poignancy sneaks up on you.

| Apr 18, 2022

This tender empathetic film about perseverance and nurturing love, which is real freedom, will steal your heart, but also strengthen your resolve to oppose all institutional attempts to criminalize queer desires and identities.

| Apr 14, 2022

Its three timelines all approach Hans at a distance, and its portrayal of his relationships as primarily transactional or illicit sits lopsidedly atop a protagonist whose soul seems to contain more than we’re seeing.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 14, 2022

Apart from all the usual signifiers that we as viewers associate with prison cinema, Great Freedom gradually builds its resonance like a Bresson film, but horny. Paul Schrader would probably dig this. Hopefully you will too.

| Apr 5, 2022

This real history adds urgency and anguish to a film that swerves away from the certainties of the “message movie” into the mysteries of fable.

| Mar 18, 2022

Great Freedom eschews easy answers for Hans and his companions, however long they may stay.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 17, 2022

Sometimes a modicum of dialogue works best. That’s seems to be a basic strategy for Austrian writer/director Sebastian Meise and co-writer Thomas Reider. Show first. Tell second.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 16, 2022