Click here to copy URL

Great Freedom

Submissions for Best International Feature (Academy Awards 2022)

Große Freiheit

2021

Sebastian Meise

Franz Rogowski, Georg Friedrich, Anton von Lucke, Joachim Schoenfeld ...

7.1

2,033

Drama. Romance In postwar Germany, Hans is imprisoned again and again for being homosexual. The one steady relationship in his life becomes his long time cell mate, Viktor, a convicted murderer.

	Media	Author	Review
		Lee Marshall Screendaily	"Though it takes a while to build, patient viewers will be repaid with interest (...) An absorbing meditation on what long-term imprisonment for a crime that is not a crime does to the soul"
		David Rooney The Hollywood Reporter	"Chronicling an ignominious chapter in queer history, Great Freedom is also a contemplative psychological study of the effects of incarceration, and beyond that, an unconventional love story"
		Guy Lodge Variety	"An exquisite marriage of personal, political and sensual storytelling, its narrative and temporal drift tightened by another performance of quietly piercing vulnerability from Franz Rogowski."
		Gary M. Kramer Salon	"A perceptive character study about resistance and resilience, buoyed by Rogowski's impeccable performance"
		Gregory Ellwood The Playlist	"A reductive gay love story that teases so much more (...) Luckily, the picture is steadied by the transfixing presence of Rogowski"
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"'Große Freiheit' is a formidably intelligent and well-acted prison movie and also a love story (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		David Ehrlich IndieWire	"A tender story of love and survival (...) Viktor’s sexuality is sketched with beautiful messiness"
		Manohla Dargis The New York Times	"Moving period drama (...) Meise and Reider don't burden the characters with chest-thumping or expository speeches; there are no title cards crammed with encyclopedic histories or triumphant flag waving"
		Matt Zoller Seitz rogerebert.com	"[Rogowski's] is one of his most moving and fully imagined performances (...) The characterizations and performances are so exact and restrained that the result is affecting and often wrenching cinema (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"
		Dan Callahan The Wrap	"The conclusion of 'Große Freiheit' manages to finesse the flaws of the movie, and it winds up feeling genuinely tragic"
		Diego Semerene Slant	"In the film, the question of love is refreshingly never too far from bodily intimacy, irrespective of what kind of love that is. Love finds a crack to slip through and manifest itself (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"
		Zhuo-Ning Su The Film Stage	"'Große Freiheit' asks a lot of its viewer and offers no rousing Hollywood ending. It's not a film you see on a whim, but lovers of truthful, humanistic cinema should take note"
		Stephanie Bunbury Deadline	"Prisons are designed to be dehumanizing and gloomy, but no shot is dull. ['Große Freiheit''s] shadows are sensuous, the flesh tones insistently alive, the occasional shafts of light through the window glorious"
		Anna Smith Time Out	"A striking illustration of a sudden liberation, helping 'Great Freedom' to be a portrait of a political journey, as well as that of a quietly fascinating hero (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Robert Abele Los Angeles Times	"'Great Freedom' makes an exquisite case for the impossibility of caging the heart, even when love itself is criminalized"
		John Nugent Empire	"It is rare to see a love story of sorts between two men played so delicately or thoughtfully (...) Tough but tender, 'Große Freiheit' sustains a fiery political anger (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		David Katz Cineuropa	"A work of so many perfectly balanced themes and strands, examining with depth German post-war history, queer life before decriminalisation, and how the deadening logic of incarceration creates a mental prison"

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.