I was not prepared for the power of the movie which finds these achingly sad moments between the characters.

A truly marvelous film about injustice, friendship, love and acceptance. The ensemble give incredible performances especially Frank Rogowski, who is amazing in his role. The hideous injustice that went on to gays in these days is rarely talked about and this film bravely deals with this matter. This is a true film with much depth and feeling.

Great Freedom is a superb and moving portrayal of human injustice. Set in Post War Germany it profiles the horrific 175 law, a law that outlawed homosexuality. At the centre of the story is Hans who is perpetually jailed through the 40s,50s and 60s simply for being gay. We follow his tragic story as he tries to maintain his dignity and humanity. In his first imprisonment he is roomed with Viktor, a murderer who is abhorred by his sexual preference. As they cross each other's paths over the years they manage to form a strange bond and friendship. This superb film intimately portrays the strength of human resilience and resistance. It's powerful and intense and moving. Performances are note perfect. Franz Rogowski and Georg Friedrich are just superb. Great Freedom is truly a great film.

I enjoyed this waaaay more than I was expecting to https://uberscaryblog.blogspot.com/2023/04/dont-say-goodbye-its-bad-luck.html

Although the content may be uncomfortable to some, others will find the message enlightening. To see how far society has come with it relationship with homosexuality since the end of WW2 is cause for a cheer. However those who lived in that time were persecuted horrendously and makes one heart ache for those who went before. This German language film was well done with the setting as gloomy and chilling as one would expect. Worth the watch, at minimum, for the historical and educational value.

As a greatly anticipated film for me it turned out to be different to what I expected. I admit also that much of that anticipation was to see Franz Rogowski again after watching every moment of him in IN THE AISLES. Yes the cruelty of the injustice that put the main protagonist in jail is an important theme, but that it turns the mirror on us, as we are now, in the final minutes of the film is the beauty of this film.

A beautiful, sensitive film about endurance. Textured, detailed, gritty, and moving.

Devastating and heartwarming at the same time.

Swapping post-WWI Britain for post-WWII Germany, Sebastian Miese's film is the second one this Film Festival depicting life as a gay man back in the dark days of discrimination and criminalisation. Imagine Jean Genet's The Shawshank Redemption, filtered through Rainer Fassbinder's tragic romanticism (or a love affair between Querelle and Shawshank), if you will. Franz Rogowski's Hans has been bouncing in and out of prison as a result of Paragraph 175 in German law which criminalises 'sex act committed between persons of the male sex'. Intercutting between three different sentences he serves in the 40s, 50s and 60s, the different men in different periods of his life neatly encapsulate the history of homosexuals who are persecuted by an unjust law often with tragic consequences. The only constant throughout is Georg Friedrich's lifer Viktor, with whom he strikes up a relationship that begins originally with disgust before understanding and kindness transform it into something else. Meise's film is a masterclass in storytelling and how to keep an audience entranced until the final frame. Rogowski, who reminds me of a German Joaquin Phoenix, has a subtle intensity and quiet charisma that makes you ache for his sweet-natured Hans to find the peace and love he deserves. Matching him scene for scene is Friedrich's hard on the outside, tender on the inside Viktor and their relationship is beautifully drawn out by their nuanced performances; not to mention the excellent make-up work that ages them up through the decades. Hands down, the strongest narrative and my favourite poster at this year's Film Festival, this is a captivating and elegantly constructed portrait of a friendship under strange and untenable circumstances, with a recidivist epilogue that's pretty much the antithesis of the ending in Shawshank, leaving us on a bittersweet note that Fassbinder would approve.

Probably the most boring film I ever watched in my entire life.

Life was once quite different for the LGBTQ+ community years ago. The mere act of engaging in same-sex relations was a criminal offense in many now-progressive countries, an activity punishable by branding offenders as perverts and landing them in prison for extended periods. One of those countries was West Germany, whose draconian measures even went so far as to transfer homosexuals liberated from concentration camp incarceration to state imprisonment after World War II. The harsh, prejudicial treatment experienced by West German gay men between 1945 and 1969, when the nation's laws against homosexual conduct were finally abandoned, provides the basis for this prison drama/love story told in four segments about the lives of four inmates, three of them gay and one of them more than a little curious. Director Sebastian Meise's second narrative feature presents an unflinching look at what gay men were up against during the time, when the simple act of loving someone of the same sex could have dire consequences, especially for the outspoken who believed one's love life was none of the state's business. Despite some occasional pacing issues (undoubtedly deliberate though at times frustrating in its attempt at conveying the tedium of prison life), this engaging and heartfelt drama makes its case without being preachy or heavy-handed and features fine performances by Franz Rogowski, Georg Friedrich, Thomas Prenn and Anton von Lucke, along with some inventive camera work. It's indeed heartening to see how far we've come in the years since then, but "Great Freedom" reminds us of how far we've had to journey in getting there – and how there are those in this world who are still subjected to this kind of needless abuse.