Take a moment and imagine living in West Germany in July 1969. Like many around the world, you’re sitting in front of a television watching Neil Armstrong as he takes “a giant leap for mankind” by stepping on the moon.
But you’re not watching this event from your home in Berlin or Munich. You’re watching from prison because you’ve been caught having consensual sex with another man.
As surprising as that may seem to many, it is a historically accurate scene from Sebastian Meise’s new film “Great Freedom,” which debuted this week in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.