Freier Fall [Free Fall] **** (2013, Hanno Koffler, Max Riemelt, Katharina Schüttle) – Classic Movie Review 12,343

Two German male cops start jogging together in the countryside as lust leads to love to conflict. Soon conflicted Marc {Hanno Koffler} realises his life is going into Free Fall (2013).

Co-writer/ director Stephan Lacant’s impressive and involving 2013 German drama film Freier Fall [Free Fall] stars Hanno Koffler, Max Riemelt, and Katharina Schüttler.

Hanno Koffler stars as conflicted copper Marc Borgmann, who lives with his pregnant girlfriend, Bettina Bischoff (Katharina Schüttler), but meets fellow police officer Kay Engel (Max Riemelt) on a training course. They start jogging together in the countryside, and one thing leads to another: a sexual liaison and then a romance develops, as lust leads to love to conflict.

Jogging is a bit like Bunburying in The Importance of Being Ernest, but this movie is no comedy. Bettina is desperately clingy and whiny, and sneakily suspicious. Kay, despite his name, is manly, virile and supremely sexy. Marc might not think he is gay, but how could he resist Kay? As Oscar Wilde writes in Lady Windermere’s Fan: ‘I can resist anything except temptation.’

Marc is torn between his love for Bettina and his incredibly strong new found feelings for another man. He may not know it, but he has picked the right man in Kay. But it is small town Germany and there is rampant homophobia, both in the force and the family. Soon Marc finds himself unable to perform sexually with Bettina, Kay is attacked by homophobic fellow officer Limpinski (Shenja Lacher), and Bettina goes through Marc’s phone and finds only recent calls from Kay. Marc realises that his life is going into free fall.

The issues are dealt with convincingly and in depth, but it’s the passionate human drama and the powerful actors that count here. And they count in very large amounts. Stephan Lacant’s film is impeccably done in all departments. It’s a tough, harsh. passionate film, with a decent brain and a beating heart.

Filming began in Ludwigsburg, Germany, in summer 2012.

Stephan Lacant wrote the script with Karsten Dahlem.

It premièred at the Berlin Film Festival on 8 February 2013 and at the Frameline Film Festival in the US on 21 June 2013.

The soundtrack written by Dürbeck & Dohmen was released digitally online by MovieScore Media to coincide with the film’s release on 23 May 2013.

A crowdfunding campaign began on 19 March 2017 for a sequel, Free Fall 2 [Freier Fall 2].

The cast are Hanno Koffler as Marc Borgmann, Max Riemelt as Kay Engel, Katharina Schüttler as Bettina Bischoff, Oliver Bröcker as Frank Richter, Stephanie Schönfeld as Claudia Richter, Britta Hammelstein as Britt Rebmann, Shenja Lacher as Gregor Limpinski, Maren Kroymann as Inge Borgmann, Louis Lamprecht as Wolfgang Borgmann, Vilmar Bieri as Lothar Bischoff, Attila Borlan as Werner Brandt, Horst Krebs as Bernd Eiden, and Samuel Schnepf as Benno Borgmann.

German actor and musician Hanno Koffler (born March 25, 1980) is known for Summer Storm, Krabat, Free Fall and the Oscar-nominated Never Look Away (2018), directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

German actor Max Riemelt (born 7 January 1984) is known for playing German safe cracker Wolfgang Bogdanow in The Wachowskis’ Netflix series Sense8 from 2015 to 2018.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,343

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com