Why the Free Fall Remake Didn’t Convince Me

“Should I not make a scene?” Bettina asks in anger, the stares of others already fixed on her. Her indignation is justified: her boyfriend and the soon-to-be father of their child has left her at pregnancy fitness class. Instead of taking responsibility for his behavior, Marc — as so often — retreats behind his grinding jaw and his silence.
“Free Fall” ranks among the most influential German contributions to contemporary New Queer Cinema. It was Stephan Lacant’s feature debut in 2013. Thirteen years later, he now presents, together with editor Dirk Grau, a newly assembled cut — with a changed emotional arc, new musical design, and previously unreleased scenes.

Two Lovelorn Cops

At the center is Marc (Hanno Koffler), who is completing his police academy training while simultaneously preparing for the birth of his first child. Together with his girlfriend Bettina (Katharina Schüttler), he sets up their shared home. Yet as his life seems to take on increasingly clear contours, his self-image begins to waver. During a professional development course he meets his colleague Kay (Max Riemelt) — and with him awakens his own bisexuality.

Marc does not respond with openness, but with suppression. He pushes Kay away again and again, allowing closeness only in short moments. This oscillation between attraction and defense, an internalized homophobia, repeatedly erupts into aggression. Tenderness remains rare for a long time. Instead, sex, cigarettes, silent gazes into the distance, and physical violence define their relationship — against one another and within their environment.

Homophobia shapes everyday life
The police academy provides the perfect resonance chamber for this. It comes across as a hyper-masculine setting whose supposed openness is limited to half-hearted hints, with discrimination allegedly not tolerated. In reality, homophobia is openly lived out and barely addressed by the system. The film does include cliché scenes — conversations in the locker room about women as sexual objects, jokes about “going gay,” or the famous dropped soap — but it also makes clear how deeply such masculine ideals permeate daily life.

Between Bettina, who longs for a reliable partner and the father of her child, and Kay, who wants a man who doesn’t feel ashamed of him, Marc finds himself increasingly crushed. He tries to be the perfect cop, the family man, and the lover all at once — and remains emotionally completely closed off. The fact that he, as an aspiring police officer, uses drugs, drinks excessively, becomes violent, and crosses boundaries without fearing serious consequences also points to a notable double standard within the film.

Marriage to Bettina or Relationship with Kay

As convincing as the ensemble performs together, unfortunately many of the female characters remain one-dimensional. Bettina is mostly a wary partner, a pregnant mother, and a wounded ex-lover; her mother mainly embodies coldness and homophobia. Other female characters hardly exist beyond their relationships with the men.

Arguably the film’s strongest polarization happens where it narrows its central conflict unnecessarily. Marc is repeatedly forced to choose: marriage to Bettina or a relationship with Kay. As if a bisexual man only has these two options. The subtitle of the new cut — “Who You Are” — only reinforces this essentialist identity framing rather than breaking it open.

Newly Added Music Feels Overproduced
The new cut doesn’t persuade consistently either: the added music often feels overproduced and emotionally manipulative — ranging from M83’s “Outro” to Moderat’s “A New Error” and Portishead’s “Roads.” There are also numerous slow-motion shots and cross-cutting sequences that, while enhancing individual scenes, tend to artificialize the film as a whole and paradoxically distance the viewer from Marc even more.

Since June, the new cut has been streaming on Q Studios Berlin. At the same time, the ending makes no secret of where the journey is headed: the streaming platform is intended to raise funds for a planned “Free Fall” trilogy. Whether this plan will succeed remains to be seen.