In the village, he became known as the Soldier. He arrived with a document identifying him as the heir to an abandoned farm. It was there, sometime in the seventeenth century, during the Thirty Years’ War, in this German Protestant settlement, that he gradually earned the trust of the locals, presenting himself as a hardworking and devout man. Yet it is all part of a grand illusion — one that soon begins to surface in dangerous ways. Actress Sandra Hüller won the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at the Berlin International Film Festival.
There’s more freedom in pants, Rose says. Set against the backdrop of the early 17th century, somewhere in Germany, a mysterious soldier, Rose, appears in a secluded village. Quiet and with a face disfigured by a scar, this stranger declares himself the heir of an abandoned farmstead. Over time, he becomes part of the community in a quest for acceptance rooted in deception. The tale of one who, defying her birth as a woman, lived as a man. Through precise framing and emotional austerity, Rose explores the violence of social structures and the fragility of selfhood.
Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall, The Zone of Interest) is splendid in her portrayal of Rose, with striking echoes of Joan of Arc. Based on true events, Markus Schleinzer’s film is both an unsettling study of identity and belonging and a tremendous achievement in cinematic language that leaves an indelible mark on the audience. (Alexandra Ferraz)
“A few years ago, a historian friend of mine called me to wish me a happy birthday and told me about an interesting German court case she associated with the date. Exactly 250 years before I was born, on the same day, a woman had been executed in Halberstadt, Germany, for pretending to be a man and being found guilty of sodomy. She is considered the last woman in German legal history to have been executed for this crime. At that time, sodomy was defined as same-sex love between men, bestiality, and penetration with an object.
This birthday greeting was the beginning of a lengthy research project in which I studied hundreds of women from different centuries who, for various reasons, had put on pants to publicly present themselves as men. Even if only for a short time. There were many reasons for this: easier access to work, escape, crime, the hope of avoiding rape, the hope of avoiding forced marriage, the hope of living a more self-determined life, the hope of gaining access to education, lesbian desire, transsexuality, patriotism, exoticism. I also came across a handful of female soldiers in knight’s armor and female pirates.
However, the resulting screenplay does not follow a single biography, but represents a conglomeration of my imagination and individual fates that I encountered on my journey with the subject. There’s more freedom in pants, Rose says at one point.
That’s exactly what connects all of the women’s fates that I’ve encountered.”
Markus Schleinzer
