"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.

I discovered this gem on Arte channel yesterday. Well, this is not SCUM, nor LES HAUTS MURS either but that remains a powerful indictment against boarding school, jailhouses for teens and showing how awful bullying behaviors can drive anyone to the worst extremities. You have already seen this kind of features before but that doesn't prevent you to appreciate this terrific authentic piece of work. Not for all audiences.

What should I say...cried when Rising Sun came out. Wolfgang's dreams, his family, friends, and his normal life were gone. Freistatt is like a smelter, melting the stubbornness and persistence, till the end only desperation survives...Fortunately they escaped from it finally, burying this memory with their past identities. New life would come, I just hope......

Just beginning my weekend with a German movie about a boy with an Oedipus Complex getting abused and tortured at a reform school. I like to start things off light with true stories like this and work my up to the darker stuff. The Germans have some mighty fine actors cuz I was really wanting to see some of these characters six feet under. The main kid was played by Louis Hoffman who was like 16 or 17 and delivers a powerhouse performance. I was seriously impressed. I saw him previously in that Netflix series Dark and a gay coming of age movie called Center of My World and he's definitely a brave actor and one to watch.