In postwar Germany, no one is truly free. Hans (Franz Rogowski) is imprisoned for being gay, but he makes a friendship with fellow inmate Viktor (Georg Friedrich), a convicted murderer.
Great Freedom is a brilliantly written and well-acted prison film that also serves as a love tale – or perhaps a bizarrely platonic bromance – spanning the end of WWII to the moon landing.
Great Freedom is a brilliantly written and well-acted prison film that also serves as a love tale – or perhaps a bizarrely platonic bromance – spanning the end of WWII to the moon landing.
His civilian life – his life outside of prison – is essentially a mystery throughout the film.
We have no information on his family or the employment he has (briefly) had. But we do know that in the 1950s, he had a love affair with Oskar (Thomas Prenn), who was also in prison with him.
Hans had a prison scene in the 1960s with Leo (Anton von Lucke), the young teacher who was detained with him in the bathroom and for whom Hans makes a self-sacrificial gesture to secure his freedom.
Viktor gruffly asks Hans if he might attend to his personal needs on a strictly prison basis as their friendship grows (after glumly examining his collection of straight porn).
Both Viktor and Hans have a sense of self that is trapped in the 1940s: prison is their only life, and certainly their only erotic life.