![]() ![]() Indeed, the one denominator that Marc’s relationships with Bettina and Kay have in common is sexual violence and aggression. Heterosexual life transpires in a suburban family setting, while homosexual relationships involve drugs and partying. Moreover, protagonists’ sexual orientation, behaviours based on traditional gender expectations, and stereotypical attitudes about these subjects account for more of the characterization of the characters than distinct personality traits, hobbies, or likes and dislikes. Although Lacant sets out to transcend the issues of homosexuality and homophobia in his film, Freier Fall does not quite live up to this goal because these two motifs remain the constant catalysts for conflicts and topics of arguments throughout. Like the story’s ending, the film remains, in this regard, unfinished. Writer and director Lacant said about his film: “Even if homosexuality plays an important motif in the film, my primary goal was to explore the underlying archetypical conflicts that result from love, hatred, denial, and self-discovery.” While the film’s depiction of accepting same-sex love and one’s sexual orientation in a homophobic environment, subtly detailing conflicting attitudes and shifting social and institutional responses, goes beyond a simple coming out story, Lacant’s vision for Freier Fall fails to come to fruition in its entirety. The drama, featuring “the most handsome lovers of the Berlinale,” responds to contemporary debates on sexual orientation, homophobia, and family values. “The German answer to Brokeback Mountain” įreier Fall explores the difficulty of existing outside of heteronormative and socially prescribed life plans in present-day Germany. In the process of trying to make sense of both old and new feelings for Bettina, his new-born son, and Kay, Marc, overwhelmed by a sense of despair and inescapability, ends up hurting everyone involved. Torn between his responsibilities to his family, including his parents who just financed their son’s semidetached house close to their own residence, and his building desire for Kay, who ultimately confesses his love for his training partner and asks him to come out, Marc struggles with redefining his wants and previously unquestioned identity. He becomes entangled in a web of lies: his pregnant girlfriend Bettina Bischoff ( Katharina Schüttler) grows increasingly suspicious of her partner’s constant absences and secretive behaviour that is out of character for him. When Kay asks to be transferred to Marc’s unit permanently, Marc’s life gradually comes apart at the seams when the soon-to-be father begins an increasingly intimate, loving relationship with his co-worker. Their growing mutual attraction – playing out in hidden smiles and glances, joint smoking sessions, roughhousing in the pool, and regular jogging outings – climaxes in a first intense sex scene during one of their regular runs through the unpopulated German forest. Marc, who is struggling to keep up with the academy’s vigorous running exercises, is immediately intrigued by his roommate’s rebellious, confident attitude. Marc meets Kay during a training course on riot control. Watch the trailer to the film (in German): On February 8, 2013, Stephan Lacant’s first feature film Freier Fall ( Free Fall) premiered at the 63 rd in the category “ Perspektive Deutsches Kino.” The much praised film tells the story of police officer Marc Borgmann ( Hanno Koffler) whose seemingly perfect world gradually implodes when he begins an affair with his colleague, Kay Engel ().
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