MUBI will release Great Freedom (Große Freiheit), the Austrian submission for Best International Feature at 2022 Academy Awards, which received its World Premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize.
Directed by Sebastian Meise, and starring Franz Rogowski, Georg Friedrich, Anton von Lucke along with Thomas Prenn, the film had its UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, and actor Franz Rogowski won the Special Jury Prize for Exceptional Performance at the Hamptons International Film Festival.
Great Freedom will have its New York City Premiere at MoMA’s The Contenders series in January; and open theatrically in NY on March 4, 2022 at Film Forum and expand nationwide.
In Germany after WWII, the liberation by the Allies did not mean freedom for everyone. Hans (Franz Rogowski, Transit) has been found guilty of something the government deems a crime: he is gay. Under Paragraph 175, homosexuality is grounds for imprisonment, and Hans–over the course of multiples decades–is spied on and repeatedly jailed solely for his sexuality. As he returns to prison, again and again, Hans develops an ever-closer relationship with his cellmate Viktor, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence. What begins as revulsion blossoms over time to something far more tender, something close to love.
Watch the official teaser trailer for Great Freedom