User Reviews

"Freiheit" or "On Disappearing" or "Freedom" is a German 100-minute movie from 2017 and here we have the second full feature work by writer and director Jan Speckenbach. The main character is played by Johanna Wokalek with her co-lead being Hans-Jochen Wagner. The latter is probably known to most from "Lore" and "Alle Anderen" and as for Wokalek, I don't think I need to introduce her. I cannot deny I am a fan of her, acting-wise and looks, which is perhaps why I liked this film more than I should have, but well Szabová near the end isn't too shabby either. Anyway, here we have the story of a wife and mother who breaks out of her everyday routine and leaves her family from one second to the next as she feels she needs to lose her chains and experience real freedom again. The result is a journey through Austria and further into Eastern Europe even where she meets new people, lovers, friends, foes etc. At the same time we find out about her husband searching for her, even with the help of mass media and he seems far more likable in this situation of desperation than he did in his marriage where we see him at the very end during scenes where his wife had not left already as the film is told in non-chronological order. That's one of the key factors here, but while I usually prefer chronology, it is somehow working here for me. Almost every situation was interesting, every scene, so the film never drags despite the running time and that is always a success. There were just minor flaws here and there for me like how quickly she finds a job during her running away or how they set her awakening up with the coma patient's awakening or the sub-par final shot with the music that was not as effective as I would have liked it, but in terms of the whole picture it is a success as the two leads do a good job acting out the conflicts of their characters. And Wagner's material probably isn't worse there than Wokalek's as his character not only has to deal with his wife's absence, possible murder, but also with being a single dad, with cheating on his wife, with struggles in his (actually pretty honorable) job etc. Overall, this was a pretty good new German/Slovakian movie. True moments of greatness you're probably not gonna find in this one, but the script and acting and directing here make it a good watch from start to finish where you are curious what is going to happen next/before, not just the question if she will return, but a lot more. She seemed so lost when she got picked up by her friend's boyfriend near the end. Sad stuff there really moving. A powerful statement on a character whose inner longings create a strong controversial act that will have a permanent effect on her (new) life. I give it a thumbs-up and recommend checking it out. Good stuff by everybody involved and here's hoping we see Wokalek more often in movies too in the next years as this is only her third movie from the last five years.

Curious to find this one in the local Czech Film Festival, a film made in Vienna Bratislava and Berlin with a German star who speaks her own laguage and English for most of the picture.

Confusingly we get severe featured Wokalek (Gudrun Ensslin in Der Baader Meinhof Komplex) arriving alone. It's not long before she's bare assed with pick ups and hocking her no receipt jewelery to get by. About this time bearded public defender Hans-Jochen Wagner is trying to get through to his German kid client, whose attack put a black refugee into a coma. The boy's parents can't see that he did anything wrong.

Wagner's having single parent problems with the daughter who he catches smoking (what?) with a boy in the family home. His solution of going on a reality TV program to ask for information on his missing wife reveals that it's Wokalek.

Turns out through conversations with her new sex worker friends (their explicit show is seen) that she left home for a lover and that didn't work out. She settles in to being a hotel maid, getting a buzz out of having to dress a bed that Vladimir Putin once slept in and we get a flash back to her earlier home life with then clean shaven Wagner suggesting why she's off seeking freiheit.

There's half a dozen story leads set up but none are worked out in the piece's hundred minutes. It's not exactly thrilling. Performances and diffused (the other Czech-S trailers looked like that too) 'Scope film making are good and the unfamiliar settings are occasionally attention getting but the over all inconclusiveness contributes to a feeling of time wasted.