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the audience applauded

Powerful

Admirable film.

A Masterpiece!

Thanks Brummund for such an excellent work. There should be more such courageous people who can tell the truth at the face of a super-hypocrite society in which we live. We live in a society which has no shortage of Sadists and very unfortunately children are the softest sufferer. I spent a year and half in a Missionary School in West Bengal, Kolkata. I was luckier than Wolfgang because my mother protected me, she did listen to me when I came home for summer vacations and complained that I will die if I go back to the mission. The film is actually so realistic, unlike what many reviewers here feel. I know that because I had been in a similar institution, though thousands of kilometres away. I remember how cruel had been many people in my locality after I returned from the coveted missionary school. There were many who asked why I returned, some suggested that I was kicked out. So I can understand why Wolfgang hit the neighbour he met on the street after he left him home without meeting his mother. Rest assured that such terrible places are still there in almost every country and will be there as long as we don't properly learn to treat others of our own species respectfully.

This is the first movie review I am writing in my life. I am writing it because none of the reviews I read (after watching the film) seem to grasp the primal emotions the movie conveyed for me. I feel so weird about this. I actually have the impression some of the reviewers are not able to feel the abyssal anti-pedagogic methods in all their bleakness and brutality. Could it be that they simply are not able to open themselves for this sort of raw, unprocessed emotion?This movie caught me completely unprepared, and may be that's why it left such an impact on me. I just switched on the TV and the movie popped up, showing the scene where Wolfgang, the protagonist, is standing around naked with his clothing in his hands. Now I am expecting to hear the screams of Wolfgang in my head for days.Most people seem to criticize two things: 1.) The predictable story-line. 2.) The exaggerated portrayal of the life at Freistatt.As to 1.) Yes. It is predictable at times. I only needed few seconds to recognize the direction the movie was gonna lead to. However, when Wolfgang was buried alive, I was shocked. I didn't think he'd survive (spoiler: he did so because it was a planned action, he got un-buried before he suffocated). I also liked the ending. It was not a happy ending, it was not a cruel ending, it was a right ending. What Wolfgang experienced was too cruel to not traumatize him. At the end he was free, but I could tell that he would never be able to lead a normal life.As to 2.) I don't know how much the movie sticks to the actual events, or whether or not it does them justice. (I am also wondering: How much do the other reviewers know about this? Have they been there? If not, which knowledge enables them to make a judgment like that?) I don't have the feeling that this is what the movie is about anyway. Not at a single point the movie felt like a historic documentation to me, but like a story about a boy with an instinct for freedom, fighting against an oppressive system. At points, it almost felt like a miniature 1984 to me, especially regarding the circumstance that Wolfgang's drive for freedom was finally broken - after his mother let him down and he got buried alive. Nevertheless he made the right decision and didn't return to his mother at the end.This is not a movie to analyze and think about much. It's a movie to feel and connect with your instincts. Reviewers who filter it by looking at it through their abstract glasses are missing its essence. And I feel inclined to suspect they don't have a healthy connection to their primal instincts themselves. I know one should avoid becoming personal, but I just can't say otherwise.Much respect to Louis Hofmann, who did a splendid job as Wolfgang.

"Freistatt" or "Sanctuary" is a German 100-minute movie from last year (2015). For director Marc Brummond and his co-writer Nicole Armbruster, it is probably the most known work of their career so far. But the cast includes some names that have also appeared in more famous project. This refers to lead actor Louis Hofmann, who recently starred in "Die Mitte der Welt", and a couple others I will talk about later on. As for Hofmann, I have no idea why he is being pushed into a role where people want to see him as the next big thing from Germany in terms of acting. I personally feel that he has very little range and his physical acting (in terms of body language and face expressions) feels virtually the exact limited approach in basically every film he is in. And it seems they always write him characters that have to suffer a lot throughout the films. Too bad, he just can't pull it off. So in my opinion, he is one of the reasons why this film here became as bad as it eventually did. Supporting performances here come from prolific actors like Max Riemelt, Alexander Held and Uwe Bohm (from the German Bohm dynasty that has made quite an impact for a long time already), who plays a violent father again, just like he does in faith Akin's new film "Tschick".As for the story, it is very uninspired in my opinions. The problem of the male protagonist at his home are generic and the acting is weak. It's a story and approach that has been done many times, and most of the times a lot better. Then the boy has to go to a boarding school and this is when the film really hits rock-bottom. The events depicted there have absolutely nothing to do with reality and it is impossible that a school like this would exist for more than a couple weeks before somebody intervenes and closes it immediately, maybe puts the head of this institution behind bars. But this is not what happens here. Here we have the violence go over to the young men in there and they start tormenting each other. So yeah, this film is packed with physical and psychological torture, abuse and humiliation from start to finish. The only purpose I see when it comes to the filmmaker's motivation is probably to shock the audience as much as possible in these slightly over 1.5 hours. And hope that the incompetent audience members do not realize that the film lacks any realism and authenticity altogether. Oh yeah, sexual abuse is a part of the film as well, why miss out on that opportunity right? It's almost offensive to victims of sexual abuse and how this film really mocks them with his absurd story lines. And of that isn't bad enough already, lets just throw in an incestuous relationship between mother and son if there is any member left in the audience that isn't disgusted yet by the action. I know I am. Especially because films like this one do not even get made, but also score awards attention that may motivate more filmmakers in the future to come up with garbage like this. 2 stars out of 10 is basically 2 too many. One of the worst films of 2015 for sure and I suggest you stay far far away.

This is an awesome and touching movie overall. The description at the beginning and end of the movie makes it more clear about how such kind of juvenile schools existed throughout the past half century in west Germany. As for the plot, I do think there are some tiny flaws such as Wolfgang's black pal traded cookies and cigarettes with him for protection, however it doesn't make much sense in the rest of the movie. And the whole film is ironic---People who fight for FREEDOM at the beginning are looked on coldly by others and failed, and other people who look coldly upon those freedom fighters achieved their own freedom in the end.