Great Freedom review – formidably telligent gay prison drama that fds liberty si | Film | The Guardian

Contents:

• ‘ON THE SAME LEVEL AS THE NAZIS’: THE FILM ABOUT GERMANY’S POSTWAR PERSECUTN OF GAY MEN
• NETFLIX EXPOS THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF NAZI GERMANY
• WERE GAY CONCENTRATN CAMP PRISONERS 'PUT BACK PRISON' AFTER WORLD WAR II?
• ‘GREAT FREEDOM’ AND THE LONG SHADOW OF AN ANTI-GAY LAW GERMANY
• THE NAZI WAR ON GAY PEOPLE: SURVIVORS SPEAK OUT
• GAY HOLOT
• GREAT FREEDOM REVIEW – FORMIDABLY TELLIGENT GAY PRISON DRAMA THAT FDS LIBERTY SI
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• SERI: GAY MEN AND LBIANS UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• 'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY

‘ON THE SAME LEVEL AS THE NAZIS’: THE FILM ABOUT GERMANY’S POSTWAR PERSECUTN OF GAY MEN

But as the award-wng new film Great Freedom mak clear, was fact a vdictive article of the German penal that crimalised male homosexualy and blighted the liv of 140, 000 men, more than a third of whom received prison sentenc. Cast & crewUser reviewsTrivia1997NC-171h 45mIn 1930s Berl, a gay Jew is sent to a ncentratn mp unr the Nazi 1930s Berl, a gay Jew is sent to a ncentratn mp unr the Nazi 1930s Berl, a gay Jew is sent to a ncentratn mp unr the Nazi productn, box office & pany Vios1More like thisReview A mt see.....

Hirschfeld, a groundbreakg sexologist, both gay and Jewish and therefore a prime target of Nazi Germany, was thankfully not prent when his stute was ransacked by mardg Nazi youth (here aga, there are photos). Here we experience the nce that thrived before the fall, at a hiaway for those whose differenc would soon mark them for prison, exile, or, many s, ath ( is timated that between 5, 000 and 15, 000 gay people died the ncentratn mps for vlatg Paragraph 175).

NETFLIX EXPOS THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF NAZI GERMANY

As JW3, the Jewish muny centre north London, lnch GayW3, celebratg the liv of the LGBTQ muny throughout history to the prent day through film, theatre, mic and discsn, and upliftg Brish-Israeli documentary Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?, backed by the BFI, prepar for s cema release, now is a great time to look back at the bt of Jewish and Israeli LGBT cema. Gay Jewish characters have been the subject of great films om around the world, and the list below featur films om the UK, France, Germany, the US, and, of urse, Israel.

WERE GAY CONCENTRATN CAMP PRISONERS 'PUT BACK PRISON' AFTER WORLD WAR II?

A number of Brish films jt missed the list, cludg Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), which Jewish doctor Peter Fch enjoyed Brish cema’s first male-on-male kiss; award-wng short film Sidney Turtlebm (2008), starrg Derek Jabi as an elrly gay Jewish pickpocket and nman; and Lisa Gornick’s latt film, The Book of Gabrielle (2016), a funny and sharp study of a Jewish lbian whose sexualy is thrown to turmoil. His adaptatn of Mart Crowley’s play, about a group of gay men who gather for Harold’s party, rultg a cel eveng of sadistic gam and sabotage, me at the wrong time – as the gay liberatn movement tablished s voice the early 1970s, negative or prsg pictns of gay men the media were seen as archaic and obstctive to progrs.

While Michael, the pathetic protagonist, is ed an unlikeable and self-pyg monster, the other characters are far more sympathetic, while the glor Harold, utterly unashamed of his homosexualy and wh nothg to hi, emerg om the rnage unsthed.

‘GREAT FREEDOM’ AND THE LONG SHADOW OF AN ANTI-GAY LAW GERMANY

Torch Song Trilogy (1988)Harvey Fierste is bt known for his stage work, particularly for wrg the books for the stage mils La Cage x Foll and Kky Boots, jog Stephen Sondheim and Jerry Herman as Broadway legends who happened to be both gay and Jewish. The star of the show, though, is Fierste, who mak Arnold a lovable, vulgar and believably human figure who challenged the perceptn of drag queens as sexls clowns shamg the gay muny. Amazg Grace, ma nearly a later, is a much stronger piece of work, about two gay men – one an nocent teenager om a troubled fay, the other an HIV patient – who fall for each other after meetg Tel Aviv.

In Man Is a Woman, he brgs all his nsirable charm and charisma to the role of Simon, a gay Klezmer mician who is offered 10 ln ancs om his tradnalist uncle if he agre to marry a woman. An attempted kiss at a New Year’s Eve party velops to a passnate romance, but the vlently homophobic and antisemic world of wartime Berl threatens their happs.

Few gay and lbian survivors were alive to tell their stori when Rob Epste and Jefey Friedman ma their important documentary Paragraph 175, whose tle riv om the German act of law prohibg gay sex, which ntued to exist to the 1990s. Rather than producg a para of cshed victims, the film foregrounds the sharp mentary of Gad Beck, a Jewish gay man who helped refuge pe; the wistful memori of love lost om Hez F., still too guard to reveal his full name; and the undiluted anger of Pierre Seel, who was tortured by Nazi officers.

THE NAZI WAR ON GAY PEOPLE: SURVIVORS SPEAK OUT

Luckily, Heather Juergensen and Jennifer Wtfeldt, who wrote and star as said let’s-give--a-whirl ‘lbians’, have w and chemistry on their si and create the neart cema has e to a gay Woody Allen movie.

The nflict between homosexualy and Orthodox Judaism has been explored a number of excellent documentari, cludg Tremblg Before G-d (2001), Keep Not Silent (2005) and Jesalem Is Proud to Prent (2008).

GAY HOLOT

Yossi (2012)Eytan Fox is one of Israel’s foremost directors, and all of his films foc on gay characters, often g homosexualy to ment on a wir theme, such as self-realisatn Mossad thriller Walk on Water (2004) or the Israeli–Paltian nflict The Bubble (2006). Where Amos Guttman wallowed the sadns of gay liv, workg as he was an era of fear and prejudice durg the AIDS crisis, Fox’s films are more optimistic and celebratory, if ocsnally btersweet.

GREAT FREEDOM REVIEW – FORMIDABLY TELLIGENT GAY PRISON DRAMA THAT FDS LIBERTY SI

(2016)After a year on the ftival circu, where won the documentary award at the Berl Film Ftival and the dience award at the UK Internatnal Jewish Film Ftival, Barak and Tomer Heymann’s feature about the life of Saar Maoz, an HIV posive gay man livg London after beg rejected by his Israeli fay and driven away om his Kibbutz, is fally gettg a short cema release April 2017. Saar fds acceptance the welg arms of the London Gay Men’s Chos, but the need to heal the rift between him and his fay leads him to ntemplate returng to Israel for good.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

This clud more than 100 gay and lbian bars and f, songs and films, and Magn Hirschfeld’s Instut für Sexualwissenschaft (the Instute for Sexual Science), which ntaed thoands of books and journals on sexualy and genr. Some Nazis believed that the majory of, if not all, homosexuals were Jewish bee many of the proment advot of gay rights and equaly were (cludg Hirschfeld as well as progrsive psychiatrists, physicians, lawyers and jurists).

More than 100, 000 men intified as homosexual were arrted and many sent to ncentratn mps at Buchenwald, Dach, Sachsenhsen, Mthsen and Achwz, where between 5, 000 and 15, 000 of them died. Heger relled that gay men had to sleep wh their hands above their blankets, and if they didn’t they were taken outsi and had buckets of water thrown at them.

The post was acpanied by a picture of a pk triangle -- the symbol officials Nazi Germany ed to intify and ostracize gay ncentratn mp prisoners -- and a quote drawn om the webse for The Pk Triangle of San Francis, an annual event rememberg those victimized unr Nazi le:. Between 1933 and 1945, an timated 100, 000 men were arrted for vlatg Nazi Germany's law agast homosexualy, and of the, approximately 50, 000 were sentenced to prison.

SERI: GAY MEN AND LBIANS UNR THE NAZI REGIME

The men arrted for beg gay were targeted unr a revised versn of a 19th century statute, Paragraph 175, which was expand to tegorize homosexualy as a crime of "cency. And their alli feated the Nazi regime, the law remaed effect after World War II, as the Holot Memorial mm's exhib on the regime's anti-gay persecutn stat:. The Nazi versn of Paragraph 175 remaed on the books of the Feral Republic of Germany (Wt Germany) until the law was revised 1969 to crimalize homosexual relatns between men over the age of 21.

On 22 March 2017, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her bet approved a bill that overturned nvictns for gay men which had rried out unr Paragraph 175 between 1949 and 1969 and also provid pensatn for survivg victims. The pk triangle symbol has sce evolved to an important remr for the gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr muny of the ntug homophobia and humany agast them and other reprsed mori around the world.

Homosexualy and the Holot – BiblgraphyGays, the Holot, and the Pk Triangle“Crimals were marked wh green verted triangl, polil prisoners wh red, “asocials” (cludg Roma, nonnformists, vagrants, and other groups) wh black or— the se of Roma some mps—brown triangl. …Very ltle has been wrten about the tens of thoands of homosexuals who were the damnest of the damned, the outsts among the outsts the ncentratn are really only timat of figur.

'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY

After the prison sentenc most homosexuals were tomatilly shipped to ncentratn 1935, a new law legalized the `pulsory sterilizatn (often fact stratn) of homosexuals. Along wh epileptics, schizophrenics and other `generat’, they were beg homosexualy was still so wispread that 1942 the ath penalty was imposed for the army and the ncentratn mps, some pk triangl beme ncub of male Kapos or other men supervisory posns among the mat. They were seldom lled other nam than arse-hol, shty queers or were allowed to talk only to each other, they had to sleep wh the lights on and wh hands above their people were not child molters; those were nsired profsnal crimals, green men wh pk triangl were given the harst jobs and were beg nstantly abed for their admted sexual preference, nsirable numbers of `normal’ men engaged homosexual acts wh impuny _ that was an emergency double standard was an addnal psychologil burn for the pk SS nsired great sport to tnt and torture the mp manr at Flossenburg often orred them flogged; as the victims were screamg, he `was pantg wh excement, and masturbated wildly his troers until he me, ’ unperturbed by the hundreds of onlookers.

Eyewns tell of homosexuals beg tortured to ath by ticklg, by havg their tticl immersed alternately to hot and icy water, by havg a broomstick phed to their an. Himmler, who wanted to eradite homosexuals `root and branch’, had the ia to `cure’ them by mandatory viss to the mp brothel at Ravensbck women provid the servic wh ltle succs.