Great Freedom

Set in post-war Germany, Great Freedom follows Hans Hoffmann, a gay man who is repeatedly imprisoned under Paragraph 175, the law that criminalized homosexuality. The end of the war does not bring him freedom. Across the years, his stays in prison keep interrupting any attempt at an ordinary life, and the one relationship that persists is with his cellmate Viktor, a convicted murderer. What begins between the two men as hostility gradually turns into something closer to love.

Sebastian Meise directed and co-wrote the film with Thomas Reider, working from a story that spans several decades. Franz Rogowski plays Hans, with Georg Friedrich as Viktor and supporting turns from Anton von Lucke and Thomas Prenn.

The film was released in 2021 and runs 116 minutes. It is a German-Austrian production from Rohfilm and FreibeuterFilm. On IMDb it holds a 7.5 rating from around 8,700 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 7.3 from roughly 210 votes, indicating a solid reception among viewers on both platforms. A critics' rating of 8.1 from 62 reviews places it somewhat higher with reviewers than with the general audience.