Hans, having already survived internment in a concentration camp, is thrown in jail, for deviant behaviour just after the war. He remained behind bars for a good twenty years. He and his comrades take a beating, are put in solitary confinement naked at the slightest sign of rebellion and are beaten by sadistic hacks, while continuing to have occasional love affairs with various prisoners.
Presented at the last Cannes Film Festival in the "Un Certain Regard" section, the sometimes radical austerity of the film gives us a powerful account of these confiscated lives, embodied with extraordinary talent by its actors, led by the formidable Franz Rogowski.
