Sanctuary

Freistatt (international title: Sanctuary) is a 2015 German drama film directed by Marc Brummund, who co-wrote the screenplay with Nicole Armbruster. Based on the testimony of a former resident, it examines the abusive and degrading methods of church-run educational homes of the late 1960s through a personal case, and was filmed around the Freistatt diaconal institution where the events took place.

The story follows fourteen-year-old Wolfgang, who clashes with his stepfather in the summer of 1968 and is sent by the youth office to a Christian educational institution called Freistatt. There he faces a military-style regime in which staff are addressed as "brother", the boys perform hard labour in a peat bog and the whole group is punished for one boy's rule-breaking. Refusing to submit to housefather Brockmann, Wolfgang is punished for his escape attempts with beatings and hunger.

Starring Louis Hofmann, the film premiered at the Max Ophüls Preis festival, where it won both the audience award and the youth jury prize, and opened in cinemas on 25 June 2015. It was one of eight films shortlisted by Germany as a possible submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards, but the selection ultimately went to Labyrinth of Lies.