Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

idaaning 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.

Diego Silva "Freistatt" is a little town in northern Germany, known for its harsh correctional institution for kids. The head of the institution develops oblique and treacherous activities, enjoying the boys' free labor to cut some peat around the local swamps. Meanwhile, rigorous discipline is imposed inside the house. The watchers apply collective punishments in response to individual faults and, inevitably, encourage blatant bullying. Some 40 miles from Freistatt, lives Wolfgang. Wolfgang is your average troublesome teenager from the late 60s. He is a rocker, an adventurer, he is cool, fascinated with bikes and he is violent. He loves his mother, but can't bear her new husband. They hate each other, both want to get rid of the other. The stepfather, however, holds certain status at home. He is the main authority and ultimately enforces his will. Wolfgang doesn't help either: he challenges his stepfather in a most provocative way. "You can do better than that", Wolfgang says after his new dad slaps him.Wolfgang is then sent to the borstal. There he suffers. Period. Misery and humiliations, beatings and pain. The protagonist undergoes countless atrocities, consecutive displays of cruelty. The director Marc Brummund seems to love these scenes. He explores them to the point that any connotation besides violence is lost. Pure evil, all of them. "They have already beaten Wolfgang? Well, tell him to mock the aggressors, rip out some more tomatoes, then we have a new excuse to beat him!"For a big part of "Freistatt", Brummund was only interested in terrifying the spectators. An exceptional take, however, drew my attention: Wolfgang betrayed by his own mother. It was impacting, I must admit. A wonderful touch. Nonetheless, just like the other villainies, this one was poorly handled. Why did Wolfgang reveal his scars and lesions, irrefutable evidence of mistreatment, so late? It's incomprehensible. But you might guess. Brummund wasn't satisfied. One can't have too much of a bad thing. An item from his "violence note" remained unchecked. He still had to bury Wolfgang and the bloody boy managed to come back home! Brummund found a good solution, but it'd never work in his hands. Perhaps, I am too harsh. I read that "Freistatt" is based on real accounts from Wolfgang Rosenkötter, who attended the house a long time ago. It's possible that the events depicted did happen, though not on a systematic basis as the film suggests. Marc Brummund could have expanded the "targets", investigating the background of the other boys and their own sufferings, instead of continuously whipping Wolfgang. Brummund could have created subplots around the employees, especially around Brother Wilde, who seemed to have serious issues with the Housefather. Likewise, Brummund could have studied Wolfgang's mother dilemmas, alternating scenes in the reformatory with scenes at home. Unfortunately, the director chose to waste time on pointless flashbacks with incestuous tones.It gets 5.

Zachaban I only live a few miles away from Freistatt, Germany, and at least regionally the movie got some attention. "Freistatt" deals with a topic that is not often dealt with in movies, chose original locations for filming and lists some very able actors (Max Riemelt, Alexander Held) in its cast.There is no fluff or filler in this movie, no boredom coming up. But while it is a good "time piece" in the sense that it gives you a good idea what it was like in that particular time and situation, there is no plot that is strong enough to really hold the movie together.Ultimately, I would only recommend it to those who are curious about or have any connection to those failures of the education system that existed for way too long.

Karl Self I saw this movie in a preview for teachers. It deals with a borstal in West Germany the late 1960ies. And basically every crass image that this subject might evoke from you, it's in this movie. Plus a few more. The protagonist, Wolfgang, is sent there because his mother has a new husband and wants him out of the way. Of course, the home is like a gulag, and Wolfgang is tortured every which way. After he is beaten up on his arrival by the bigger boys, another boy, Anton, offers him cookies for protection. Why? It doesn't work the other way round! Later, Anton steals a photograph of Wolfgang's mother and very publicly jacks off to it. Why, oh why? Who does that? A bit later, Wolfgang has an erotic dream about his own mother. What the? What's going on here? The boys are beaten, forced to do hard labour in the swamp, and starved. The sun never shines. One of the boys has a homosexual relationship with one of the minders. The headmaster constantly rides around on his horse as if he was one of the Southron slavekeepers in Django Unchained (the rest of the time he's pruning his vegetables like Hannibal Lecter on furlough). Then, when all hope is lost, another cliché arrives: The foxy headmaster's daughter. In another attempt to crassen up ("to crassen up" = "to make even more crass in order to compensate for storytelling") the plot, Wolfgang eventually almost rapes her.This is essentially an exploitation movie, without the fun.