German screenwriter, producer and director Matthias Glasner's fifth feature film which he co-wrote with Jürgen Vogel and screenwriter Judith Angerbauer and co-produced with Jürgen Vogel, Christian Granderath and Frank Döhmann, was shot on location in the city of Mülheim, the Baltic Sea Island of Usedom and Berlin in Germany and in Belgium. It is a German production and premiered In competition at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival in 2006. It tells the story about Theo Stoer, a rapist who after spending more than nine years in a psychiatric hospital for crimes he committed while living and working as a kitchen helper on a Baltic Sea Island, is sent to an assisted living residence in Mülheim, Germany. Helped by a parole officer named Sascha, Theo gets a job at a printing office, begins to practice Martial Arts and is encouraged to find himself a woman whom he can take out on a date. Though struggling with a high level of anxiety Theo follows Sascha's advice and has no luck. He decides to give it a rest and focus on his daily tasks, but one day he is introduced by his boss Claus Engelbrecht to his daughter Nettie, a 27-year-old kitchen assistant who is about to move out from her father's house and into her own apartment. Theo and Nettie are both lonely individuals who seek the company of others and without knowing anything about Theo's history, Nettie becomes attracted to him.Finely and acutely directed by European filmmaker Matthias Glasner, who was co-writer, co-cinematographer, co-producer and co-editor on this feature film, this quietly paced independent film draws an incisive and unsettling portrayal of a man who is trying to get back into society after serving time for committing horrendous crimes against women and an intimate and humane portrayal of a friendship and of a lonely, considerate and independent-minded woman who finds a connection and falls in love with a person she hardly knows. While notable for its gritty and naturalistic urban milieu depictions, the versatile production design by production designers Tom Horning and Conny Kotte and the fine editing by Matthias Glasner, German film editor Mona Braüer and film editor Julia Wiedwald, this at times silent and character-driven story depicts two merging studies of character and examines themes like loneliness, guilt and human relations.This dense, somewhat disturbing and demanding psychological drama which alternates between the two main characters' viewpoints and between realism and non-realism, is impelled and reinforced by its rigorous narrative structure and the introspective and heartfelt acting performances by German screenwriter, producer and actor Jürgen Vogel and Swiss actress Sabine Timoteo. An unsentimental and afflicting love-story which gained, among other awards, the Prize of the Guild of German Art-house Cinemas Matthias Glasner and the Silver Berlin Bear for Outstanding Artistic Achievement Jürgen Vogel at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival in 2006.

This physically and emotionally extremely violent movie is a deep meditation on an essential philosophical problem regarding mankind: man's free will, his freedom and liberty of action. It is the story of a man who tries to master his sexually sadistic drive against women. With harsh explicit shots the camera shows the uphill struggle against this obsession baked into the genes: 'It is inside me. It is inside me'. How can I get rid of it? This movie, with a sublime Jurgen Vogel in an extremely difficult role, is one of the greatest masterpieces of all time. It is a must see for all those who want to know who we really are.

Saw it here in Germany yesterday. This is a pretty intense film. It's a psychological study about two people, one of them a rapist and one a shy young women (strange personality as well) who seem to develop feelings for each other. Because of the very gritty atmosphere and some disturbing scenes quite a few people left the cinema. Even though I appreciated some of the film's aspects like not holding back on anything and developing deep characters I still felt like the director forgot to deliver a final cut of the movie: it was so long (160 minutes) and stuffed with endless shots that didn't help the story, that I felt bored many times, in spite of the extreme story and the brilliant acting. Another thing that bugged me was the low resolution, low color, video camera style which was probably supposed to make the film look even more bleak - unnecessary in my opinion.Had it been cut to regular film length, it would have greatly benefited the impact of the movie. Like this, for me it's a 7.P.S. One guy here mentioned in his review, that understanding of different cultures is necessary like the Germans' "cool and thoughtful communication style". I have never seen people in Germany talk as little as the characters in this movie and can't imagine any two people to build a relationship based on one sentence per five minutes.

I, too, saw this film at the Berlinale, and though the matter of rape was treated with maturity and frankness, the film itself was constructed poorly. More than anything, it was bland - camera placement and cuts were standard fare, non-diagetic sound was near non-existent, and the dialogue was highly unrealistic, comprising of long, drawn-out pauses interspersed with briefly-spoken lines.The upshot of this was that I felt no attachment to the characters beyond a basic sympathy for their current predicaments - dialogue was stretched out to the point of losing its emotional resonance, and many lines were delivered with little feeling from the actors. I was particularly unconvinced by Sabine Timoteo's performance, whose talent restricted her to screaming rather than actual crying. Compared to Claire Dane's stunning depiction of anguish in Romeo and Juliet, I felt wholly unsatisfied by her performance.It was these factors that made the characters feel less than human, failing to imbue them with life. This, coupled with the utterly bland direction and editing, meant that I felt no attachment to them, and I was left gagging for each coming line of dialogue purely to provide a break from the silent, expressionless moments in between. Drawing out the narrative to over two and a half hours simply rubbed salt in the wound.The Free Will was not in itself awful, but there were so few points of interest that I found myself becoming restless within forty minutes, and when the credits rolled in what will doubtless be considered a brilliantly emotional finale, I still felt little attachment to the characters.