#people: hanno koffler

[maytheleiabewyou]

Analysis of the German gay film #freefall / #freierfall PART 1

For the 10th anniversary (omg! 10 years already!) of one of my favorite movies I decided to make an analysis of the film and especially of the scenes between these two great actors. Max Riemelt and Hanno Koffler. Kay and Marc. Marc and Kay. Yes, I'm in love with both of them. It's a movie that I don't know how many times I've seen that without knowing German I know the dialogues by heart. I hope you appreciate it and above all that this will encourage the fandom and the possible realization of the second part, which I am looking forward to. From time to time I will upload parts analyzing the film from my perspective after having seen it so many times and having understood different nuances over the years.

HERE IT IS PART 1:

The film begins at the police academy training where we immediately see that, in a practice on the athletics track, Marc is not able to keep up with his teammates and is falling behind until the group is already well ahead of him. While he is panting, he can't take it anymore and just walks while his teammates continue running.

After this scene we can already appreciate the first moment where the protagonists, Marc and Kay share something more than a shot and that is that (for the moment) they are roommates. Marc decides to get up early for what presumably is to go to practice the speed test that as we have witnessed in the first minutes of the film is one of his weak points. What should be noted, moreover, is that in the first scene of the film, the advanced student at the head of the group of runners is, precisely, Kay. Before Marc leaves the room we already have the first joke of Kay towards Marc where he tells him lying down with a jocular tone "how much God helps the early risers", Marc's response and to which we will have to get used to is to look at Kay and tell him everything with this gesture without uttering a word, but sketching a small smile.

In the next appearance of both, although we already see friction between their bodies, it is not a friendly one, but rather, they are immersed in another police practice, this time with the riot uniform on where they recreate a demonstration and what it would mean to charge against the violent people who confront the police. Kay pretends to be one of them while Marc lines up with another group of comrades making a common police front. Marc takes the lead in the attack after the instructor's express order and it is not quite clear why in the following scene. Kay bursts in with force to take down the policeman who is blocking his way, as it could not be otherwise it is a Marc- Kay melee.

Why do the two end up arguing and with unbridled aggression? The answer is confusing. Perhaps Marc in an attempt to forget his poor performance in the speed test wants to stand out this time. Albeit in a dirty way, as he achieves his purpose by taking Kay to the ground after kicking him. Or is it just an excuse involving both of them to keep them together because after Kay abruptly gets up from the floor he starts insulting Marc and Marc doesn't stand still, but answers him and confronts him too. Be that as it may, the two are called to attention and forced to pay a visit to the director of the academy to somehow fix what just happened. Without knowing how to answer what happened in this scene, it is certain that their joint reprimand plants the seed of friendship between the police trainees.

The smoke, the cigarettes and the simple act of smoking embodies the meeting point between the two and for that very reason, blessed tobacco. After having passed by the director's office, they meet again, as if not smoking in the street. And here is the exact moment where the chemistry between them begins. In this scene Kay makes his famous joke towards the head of the academy with his phrase "a real poet that Brandt", jokes that Marc begins to love as he lets out a laugh.

I also want to highlight the small details. The small details are everything. Hence the reason for this analysis. Kay asks Marc if he has a light to light his cigarette and he was about to take Marc's hand where he had the cigarette and bring it close to his to light it, a scene that we will see later on that not only will make Marc slightly uncomfortable, but also shows the unresolved sexual tension between them and how it is precisely the small details that will make them both fall in love with each other. Here comes Marc's forgiveness of Kay for his attitude at practice earlier and his attraction to the blonde-haired man. Kay starts smoking not just any cigarette but a joint. If there is one adjective that defines Kay it is bravery and fearlessness. He is smoking marijuana in the middle of the police academy after having been reprimanded by the director (!!)

Can that turn us on more? Marc also shows that he is not only attracted to this, even if he resists, but that he likes it, because he ends up accepting the puff that Kay offers him. Kay's courage seems to have no limits and they decide to go to the academy pool at night, defying all the rules. Marc keeps asking him if he's crazy, but he follows Kay and they both end up taking a dip in the pool and playing with each other. This scene is THE scene.

It is because of this scene that their love language begins to develop. All couples have their own language where there are words or even phrases that only they know what they mean. This is where Kay in order to entice Marc to take a bath with him says the "pussy" thing to him, appealing to Marc's masculinity and manliness. Obviously his pride as a man does not allow him to look like a pussy in the eyes of others and that word from Kay will be the impetus to make Marc take action. Throughout the film the word "pussy" will make them both smile at each other when they hear it.

[everythingmaxriemelt]

Some really good news about Freier Fall/Free Fall sequel ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Director Stephan Lacant was talking to RadioEins yesterday (3 July) about the worldwide success of “Schlafende Hunde”/“Sleeping Dog”, then they talked about his career, where he studied… and then of course about “Freier Fall” in 2013 and how they still have fans asking when the sequel is coming.

And looks like the plan has changed - they are now planning to make a Freier Fall 2 TV series instead of a part-2 feature film ❤️🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌❤️ *screams*

This is what Stephan said during the interview:

Interviewer: There’s news that there will be a sequel. However, that does not mean a second part but…

Stephan: A series.

Interviewer: A series. So after ten years, the two return.

Stephan: Exactly.

Interviewer: And you tell the story of the two of them ten years later?

Stephan: Also about Bettina. So it's going to be from when she was Marc’s wife at that time, of Hanno Koffler. And they separated when the secret came out, of course there was a huge explosion. And now we tell the story ten years later from all three perspectives. From the scenes where all three of them have landed, so to speak. What happened to them in life, what path they have taken in life. And the new, the old flares up again.

Interviewer: Okay that tells it. Series. But that’s not all of it, as you said, it’s not in the clear yet. You guys have done crowdfunding.

Stephan: Just like back then when we did crowdfunding for a sequel feature film. And it went very successfully. Somehow people from all over the world donated, and then the project kind of petered out, a little bit. And now we've relaunched it as a series, so to speak.

Interviewer: Aha, okay, so there are already producers?

Stephan: There are producers with whom we did the first part with and now we are talking to streamers.

Interviewer: Okay, so we'll keep our fingers crossed for you and we're looking forward to the series.

*You can listen to the full interview on RadioEins

[hannokofflerfanpage2]

We do not understand the scale of the problem of the secret relationship between Marc and Kay until we see this scene.

On the one hand, Marc is afraid that Kay will delathe him in revenge mode and tell him about his relationship with everyone in the academy.

Kay is the one who suffers the most, because apart from being harassed and removed from the rest in the academy, he suffers from being in love with someone who never belonged to him.

Then this Britt, who was deceived by her relationship with Kay after she discovered it.

And finally we have Gregor's homophobic, who serves as a time bomb waiting to explode against Kay.

In the end, Marc and Kay's only mistake was to fall in love

FREIER FALL (2013) Directed by Stephan Lacant

[teutophile]

I'm more than happy for this trend to continue tbh

[rockthistowninsideout]

My type 

Rules: post 10 photos of your celeb crushes so people could get an idea of your type.

Saw it in the Matthew-Macfadyen-tag, posted by @pandedios-carli​.

In no particular order:

Gwilym Lee (especially as Brian May)

Matthew Macfadyen

Chris Evans

Hanno Koffler

Taron Egerton

Lzzy Hale

Noora Louhimo

Sabin Tambrea

Nick Hoult

Richard Armitage (especially as Thorin Oakenshield)

Bonus:

Stefan Ruppe

[slayerchick303]

Hanno Koffler's performance in Freier Fall adds so much to the movie. Let's face it, Marc does a lot of unlikable and awful things to the people in his life. His treatment of Kay and Bettina was horrible, each in different ways. It could be really easy to hate his character. Hanno's portrayal of Marc gives the role so much dimension and humanity, that you can't help but hope he figures things out and ends up in a better place in his life at the end.

[bluebelle88]

Freier Fall

I recently watched the 2013 German film Freier Fall (Free Fall) and I honestly can’t believe I never saw it before. It focuses on police officer Marc Borgmann (Hanno Koffler) as his life goes into free fall. Marc finds himself torn between his life with his pregnant girlfriend Bettina Bischoff (Katharina Schüttler) and fellow officer Kay Engel (Max Riemelt). There are some gorgeous scenes between Marc and Kay, they have this is unbelievable passion and an unexpected softness. The scenes between Marc and Bettina are cute and emotionally charged. The actors all do a fantastic job or portraying emotions, Reimelt in particular because Kay wears his heart on his sleeve. The film is wonderfully shot with a beautiful colour scheme, there is so much green which makes perfect sense given the importance of the wood to them.

It is the kind of film that sticks with you, haunts you and makes you want that crowdfunded sequel desperately (I wish I had found it sooner so I could contribute). Freier Fall is a melancholy film of love and self-discovery. I cannot recommend it to people enough right now.

I’m spamming Marc x Kay today because good lord they are good together and some of those scenes are off the charts.

[glenngaylord]

GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM - My Review of NEVER LOOK AWAY (4 Stars)

Proving his Academy Award for the stunning THE LIVES OF OTHERS was no fluke, Writer/Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck bounces back from his unfortunate detour through the Hollywood meat grinder with THE TOURIST to helm a truly worthy follow-up to his feature debut with the moving, mesmerizing NEVER LOOK AWAY.  It may have a torturous 3 hour-plus running time, but this intimate epic spans across decades of 20th century German history while challenging itself and its audience as to the nature of art.  It’s never boring, despite the fact that we sometimes literally watch paint dry.

The story of fictional artist, Kurt Barnert (Tom Schilling), loosely based on the painter Gerhard Richter, starts in the late 1930s with the Nazis gaining power and force-feeding such exhibits as “Degenerate Art’ down the public’s throat as an example of how not to express oneself in the Third Reich.  It’s at such an exhibit where we meet a young Kurt and his free-spirited Aunt Elisabeth (the gifted Saskia Rosendahl).  Despite living with mental health challenges, his Aunt imparts the wisdom of the movie’s title, imploring her nephew to truly look at what’s in front of him, however unpleasant.  In a heartbreaking scene, Elisabeth plays the piano in front of Kurt while naked and repeatedly abuses herself with an ashtray.  Although carted off by the Nazis to never be seen again, her words resonate throughout the rest of the story.  At the mental hospital, we meet Dr. Carl Seeband (Sebastian Koch), a quite evil Nazi, who oversees the deaths of such “less desirables”.  

Unsure if he wants to pursue a career in art with life such as it is under Hitler, Kurt survives World War II, suffering other family tragedies, only to end up a young aspiring artist in Soviet-occupied, post-war Germany.  From one oppressive environment to another, we see his talents used for propaganda art.  During this time, he meets and falls in love with Ellie Seeband (Paula Beer), not knowing her father’s past and connection to his family’s loss.  When Ellie becomes pregnant, her father manipulates her into getting an abortion rather than put a stain on their bloodline with the likes of Kurt.  Dr. Seeband clearly believes in eugenics long past Hitler’s reign of terror.  

Life for Kurt and Ellie feels untenable, and fleeing feels like their best option.  Before the Berlin Wall went up, defecting to the West proved as easy as getting on a subway and crossing town, and that’s exactly what our pair do.  Kurt finds his way to an art academy led by the enigmatic, intimidating Professor van Verten (Oliver Masucci), where experimental, free-spirited artists slash canvases, hang potatoes from the ceiling and other attempts to expand the meaning of art.  Painting, it seems, has become passé.   Kurt, with the encouragement of his hilarious studio mate Günther (Hanno Koffler), jumps right into this avant garde environment, trying to find his elusive voice for the first time in a place of total freedom.

NEVER LOOK AWAY raises important questions about how artistic expression flourishes.  Sometimes the best art comes in the aftermath of an oppressive regime.  I think of the explosion of great cinema which followed the end of dictatorships in Romania and Spain, as two small examples.  After years of stifled creativity, artists have been known to blossom.  I can only imagine what great art we may see out of North Korea some day when its people have a chance to truly tell their stories.  In NEVER LOOK AWAY, we go on a very long journey to see if Kurt can dig deep, look at his life head on, and find that spark.  

It’s a gorgeous thing to witness and makes the last third of this film leap off the screen.  Much credit must be given to Schilling, who has a very difficult role.  A man of few words, and who when given the chance ends up sounding completely pretentious, he still conveys his entire history through his soulful eyes.  It’s a subtle, unfussy performance I’d admired greatly.  Additionally, cinematography legend Caleb Deschanel (THE RIGHT STUFF) shoots this film with such sweep and passion, even in confined studio spaces which magically refract light with the opening and closing of shutters.  Composer Max Richter (THE LEFTOVERS) contributes a lush, hypnotic, string-heavy and memorable score which perfectly complimented Kurt’s emotional and artistic journey.  

NEVER LOOK AWAY forces its characters to reconcile their pasts in an attempt to integrate them into their present day lives.  Koch has a stunner of a scene when he sees Kurt’s true work for the first time, reminding him of the terrors he’s inflicted on the world.  Kurt’s long road, however, feels earned and culminates in a bookended scene of pure joy and release.  It took Kurt long enough to find himself much as it took von Donnersmarck some time to do the same.  I’m glad they both made the effort.  

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

Dear everyone who is reading this - please help:

So hello everyone and thanks for your time. First of all: I’m sorry for my mistakes - I’m not a native speaker, but I try my best with English.

So, what is this post about.

It’s about a film. A really great film. A film that needs your help.

In 2013 a film came out in Germany called “Freier Fall” (Free Fall). It’s about two guys, Marc and Kay, who are falling in love with each other. The problem: Marc has a wife and both are expecting a child and so far he didn’t know anything about his homosexual feelings. In addition: Marc and Kay working as police men and they have some homophobic friends/colleagues and Marc has some very homophobic family members. Despite everything, they fall in love together, but it gets getting harder and harder for Marc to keep his love secret and his life starts falling apart. The film ends with an open end.

The film was huge success in Germany - which was a real suprise. Many ciritcs talked about the great acting, storyline and such things. It didn’t take long and the film got many fans all around the world.

You also may know the actors: Hanno Koffler is a well known actor in Germany and Max Riemelt is also a well known actor in Germany and outside of Germany. One of his roles is Wolfgang Bogdanow from Sense8.

After the movie, many fans weren’t happy with the open end and asked the producer and actors for a sequel. After years, they’ve found time. There is going to be a sequel - and there is a big, fat BUT.

Movies are (unfortunately) expensive and they need money to produce it. So, they started a crowfunding campaign.

Here is the link to the website of Free Fall 2 / Freier Fall 2 and the crowfunding video: http://www.freefall2.com/ .

Look, what I’m asking is: It would be awesome, if you could support the movie with some money. Or, if you can’t, and that’s absolutely fine, it would be great if you could spread the word and reblog this post, so more people will know about the crowfunding.

It would be really, really, really awesome, if we (the fans) get the second part, because many people fall in love with the lovestory between Marc and Kay. It was tragic, yes, but really beautiful written and played.

So, please support the film with some money and/or reblog this post.

Thank you very much!!!

[hakkinens-moved]

I got tagged by @meggiesobsessions ty ty

Rules: answer the questions in a new post and tag 10 blogs you would like to know better.

Nicknames: oh lordt there’s so many but @owlsnestfc​ calls me cretin Gender: female Star sign: libra Height: 5ft 2″ Time right now: 10:50am Last thing i googled: to watch the film Freistatt (im max riemelt trash let me live) Favourite bands: ahh i have so many; oingo boingo, kakkmaddafakka, kraftwerk, kraftklub & the wombats (to name a few) Favourite solo artists: hm i dont actually listen to a lot of solo artists but im really digging childish gambino and bruno mars atm Song stuck in my head: redbone by childish gambino Last movie i watched: the literal last film i watched was free fall and that was last night but the last film i saw in cinemas was get out Last tv show i watched: you are wanted AND OH BOY ITS SO GOOD Y’ALL GOTTA CHECK IT OUT germany’s first prime exclusive and its fuckin lit When did you create your blog: schweinstgrs was created in 2014 (its been 3 years already???) and my “mainblog” was created in 2012 i think What stuff do you post: football on this blog, and on my “main” blog i post about film, pretty aesthetic posts and studyblr things and trash posts about hanno koffler and max riemelt and other german actors When did you blog reach its peak: who said its at its peak??? joking aside i hope now, but im close to 1k so we’ll see Do you have any other blogs: I have a few that have been inactive for a long time but my (half active) main blog is @ralfhutters Do you get asks regularly: lmao no Why did you choose your url: well my original url was drunkschweinsteiger and that was too long so i finally managed to get an aesthetically pleasing short url and here we are plus bastian literally owns my heart and soul and is daddy af Following: 246 Posts: on schweinstgrs its 5921 and on ralfhutters its 21192  Hogwarts house: i dont like harrypotter at all i’d say i would be ravenclaw or slytherin but the the test i did said i was hufflepuff Pokemon team: team skull but maybe team rocket as well bc im og Favourite colours: green, white, black and peach Average hours of sleep: 8/9 Lucky numbers: 7 & 18 Favourite characters: hhhh this is hard but probably? hans landa & donny donowitz from inglorious basterds & malte from summerstorm (i really cant think of any else on the spot) What are you wearing right now: an oversized college shirt and shorts How many blankets do you sleep with: one Dream job: director / screenwriter working in germany Dream trip: berlin (im going back for a week in november!!!!!!!!!!!!) bergen, reykjavik , munich , fiji 

the people im tagging and wanna get to know better are: @griezmanny , @holyhowedes @foodball , @basthiago , @robertsatandowski09 , @mjhummels , @jujudraxler , @kimmearth , @owlsnestfc & @thomasmxller have a go y’all :}

[queermediastudies]

Free Falling Into Queerness

Hailed as the German Brokeback Mountain (2005), Free Fall (2013) is about the relationship that blossoms between two police officers. Set in Germany, the movie follows Marc (Hanno Koffler) as his life slowly starts to “free fall”. Marc lives with his pregnant girlfriend, Bettina (Katharina Schüttler) and is training at a police academy. While at the academy, he meets and his roommates with Kay (Max Riemelt). After jogging in the forest together to help with Marc’s training, the two start a romantic affair. This relationship continues until Marc’s parents, Bettina, and the whole police unit that Marc and Kay work in find out. Marc’s life is completely changed at the end but, with Kay gone, Marc begins to rebuild the pieces of his life alone. While Free Fall achieves at constructing a heteronormative world that reflects our own and resisting common stereotypes, it fails in creating a deep relationship between the main characters and reinforces aggressive masculinity.  

Free Fall resists gender stereotypes while embracing common performances of masculinity. Judith Butler first defined gender as a performance, arguing “that it is performative - our gender is our expressions and behaviors (rather than those expressions and behaviors being the result of some underlying gender identity).” (Barker & Scheele, 2016, pg. 79). Gender is what a person does, not who they are. Marc and Kay reinforce the idea that men are aggressive in their relationships and with the people around them. The first introduction between Marc and Kay ends in a fight because of a training exercise that accidentally went farther than it needed to. Marc pushes Kay to the ground which causes Kay to spring back up, slapping Marc upside the head. At this point, the pair are only stopped from fighting with one another because their captain tells them to. The first time the pair actually kiss, it is done forcefully and aggressively. Kay pulls Marc in for a kiss even though Marc does not want to as evidenced by Marc shoving and pushing Kay away. This reinforces the dominant idea that men are supposed to be assertive with their love interest. In another scene, Kay tries to force a coming out confession out of Marc. Preceding this moment, Marc is driving when he sees Kay in his back mirror. After being spotted, Kay drives fast enough to cut in front of Marc. This was all due to the fact that Marc wasn’t responding or speaking to Kay for the past couple days. When Kay tries to convince Marc to come out, Marc punches him. The notion that men are aggressive are well and apparent in this movie but it isn’t present in just the representation of Marc and Kay. 

Gregor (Shenja Lacher) is a police officer and coworker of both Marc and Kay. He almost always comments on women he would like to sleep with, at one point stating that he “wouldn’t mind being locked up” by one of their female coworkers. Gregor is even surprised when another male coworker asks if he talks about anything else. After Kay is outed to the police unit, Gregor begins bullying Kay. Gregor makes a point to target Kay simply because he is homosexual. While waiting in line for lunch, Gregor pokes Kay’s bottom with a water bottle while stating that he wouldn’t let someone like Kay grab his balls. That remark prompts a fight between Gregor and Kay. Gregor performs typical norms of masculine gender by being aggressive and talking about women as sexual objects rather than people. Gregor, Marc, and Kay perform typical performances of masculine identity which emphasizes the idea that this is the way that men are supposed to act. 

However, Free Fall succeeds in breaking gender stereotypes of gay men in movies. Films in the early twentieth century employed the use of gender inversion to represent homosexual characters. It was commonplace for a movie to “have the character act in defiance of traditional gender norms.” (Bernshoff & Griffin, 2004, pg. 6). Gay men would be portrayed as feminine. Neither Marc nor Kay are ever shown to be feminine at all during the movie. As I mentioned, they perform their gender in the way society expects men to act. Though there is fault in how the men reinforce typical male performances, the movie succeeds in straying away from characterizations movies ordinarily inflict on queer characters. 

The relationship between Marc and Kay is solely based on their physical attraction to one another. While Moonlight (2016) de-sexualized their gay male couple, Free Fall over sexualizes theirs. After Marc begins his love affair with Kay, almost every interaction between them either begins or ends with a kiss or sex scene. Throughout the movie, I never felt as if these two characters ever connected or truly fell in love with one another. This plays into the fact that “Too often, in our film and TV images, gays are narrowly depicted as either desexualized or over sexualized, making of gay sexuality either the sum total of a character’s identity, or alternately, the unspoken absence.” (Walters, pg. 2015, pg. 7). Kay does not have an identity outside of Marc, whether that means clubbing, doing drugs, jogging, or sleeping with him. Not only that, their relationship begins with Kay forcing himself onto Marc whether that was the tricked kiss or forced hand-job. This perpetuates the idea that homosexual characters just want to sleep around and are sexual deviants. 

The world that Marc and Kay live in reflect our own heteronormative world. Heteronormativity assumes that everyone is straight and that their identity is fixed. Free Fall does a well enough job of showcasing the fluidity of sexuality. Throughout the movie, Marc never admits or outright confesses that he is gay. This coincides with gay, lesbian, and queer studies that argue “that sexuality is a social construct, thereby challenging the definition as part of (a fixed) identity, rather than as an activity one might engage in.” (Andersson, 2002, pg. 2). Sexuality is fluid and Marc’s relationship with Kay showcases that. At the beginning of the movie, Marc is happy with Bettina and their relationship is framed in domestic bliss. Their parents approve of the relationship, even though some may frown upon the fact that the couple became pregnant outside of marriage. On the other hand, Marc’s parents actively discourage Kay from seeing Marc again because they do not believe that it is right for them to be together.  

Gregor openly berates Kay for being queer and starts a fight with him in a cafeteria in the police academy. When Gregor and Kay fight one another, the only person to step forward to stop it, aside from their captain, was Marc. Everyone in the cafeteria heard what Gregor said or saw what he did but no one did much in the way of stepping in. Both of these examples are of family rejection and discrimination which are “caused by cultural views that anything not straight or cisgender is abnormal or even dangerous” (Cochrane, 2016). Following Marc throughout this movie and seeing what he goes through because he’s considered different by his society highlights the serious consequences of the heteronormative world. The goal of Free Fall was to explore “the difficulty of existing outside of heteronormative and socially prescribed life plans in present-day Germany.” (Orich, 2015). In that aspect, the movie succeeded in showcasing the trials and tribulations that one individual must go through in a heteronormative world. 

While the film did succeed in a few areas, I still tried to keep a critical eye on the way the relationship between Marc and Kay developed. At no point during the movie did I feel as if the two ever fell in love with one another, which seems silly considering how adamant Kay becomes that he loves Marc. Their relationship never felt convincing to me. The world that was built around them looked like real life and they performed their gender as typically men are expected to act but they never convinced me that this was at all something worth fighting for. Though I am only a young heterosexual woman of color, I want to see more representation and relationships that have believable romantic progression. I’m also tired of gay couples having sad endings in movies. I applaud the movie for showing audiences around the world what life is like for gay men in Germany while resisting certain stereotypes but I still criticize it for reinforcing common masculine performances and under developing their main couple.

References:

Andersson, Y. (July 2002). Queer Media? Or; What has queer theory to do with media studies? Retrieved from: http://www.portalcomunicacion.com/bcn2002/n_eng/programme/prog_ind/papers/a/pdf/a009se04_ander.pdf Barker, M. & Scheele, J. (15 Nov 2016). Queer: A Graphic History. London: Icon Books. Benshoff, H. & Griffin, S. (2004). Queer Cinema: The Film Reader. Psychology Press. Walters, Suzanna D. (2015). The Tolerance Trap. NYU Press. Orich, A. (30 Sept 2015). Is Love All You Need? Stephan Lacant’s Freier Fall. Kultur 360. Retrieved from: http://www.kultur360.com/is-love-all-you-need-stephan-lacants-freier-fall-free-fall-2013/ Cochrane, K. (1 Sept 2016). Why Heteronormativity Is a Bad Thing. Teen Vogue. Retrieved from: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/heteronormativity-gender-identity-sexual-orientation

[hannokofflerfanpage2]

Happy Father's Day

[hannokofflerfanpage2]

Check the review here 👇👇

Her new movie follows a family of three, composed of Rainer Matschek (a majestic Hanno Koffler, co-writer on the film together with the director), who works for a construction company and has recently been appointed site manager for an important project; his caring wife Nadine (Anna Blomeier); and their 13-year-old daughter Doreen (Dora Zygouri). The family has recently moved into a little house in the outskirts of the town, owing to rising rents and in order to make ends meet, and the new work project he’s been assigned may be the much needed big break that Rainer's career needs. Two crucial events begin to shake up the family's frail balance. First, Doreen makes friends with her neighbour, Mara (Lilith Julie Johna), a girl of her same age from a rich family, who incites her to play some nasty tricks and involves her in a theft at a convenience store. Second, Rainer is unexpectedly demoted by his boss Klose (Robert Stadlober) and forced to leave his post to Kleemann (a marvellously hateful Andreas Döhler), an unscrupulous supervisor ready to exploit his manpower day and night for the sake of maximising profits. As the two conflicts escalate, we are helpless witnesses to the family's unavoidable collapse. Rainer and Doreen are pushed to their limits and keep on “biting the bullet,” while their two enemies find ways to make their lives impossible. The constant feeling of powerlessness is not too different from the one experienced when watching Ken Loach's drama Sorry We Missed You [+]; here, too, the head of a family must fight against his tyrannical employers and the spiral of small and big misfortunes hitting the characters seems unstoppable. The growing tension is also felt through the film's increasingly fast narrative pace, which in later stages becomes rushed and anguishing. The cinematography, courtesy of Falko Lachmund (Sisters Apart [+]), ties in wonderfully with Meyer's poetic of social realism, and does not hesitate to show the ugliest and most depressing room corners, shabby interiors, Rainer's unkempt look, the rust and the dirt. The final showdown is timely, cruel and meaningful, as it offers a wider – and even more disillusioned – perspective on the role of victims and perpetrators as well as on the process of dehumanisation caused by labour exploitation and bullying. On the whole, the Braunschweig-born director does a great job in tackling these overused themes, choosing to place her trust on excellent leads and dry dialogues.

[teutophile]

Hanno and Max receiving an award for their performance in Freier Fall.

[teutophile]

Hallesche Kometen (2005)

[teutophile]