Sanctuary

In the summer of 1968, the 14-year-old Wolfgang from Osnabrück is sent away after defying his stepfather. After showing his mother's pornography magazine to friends, the Youth Office places him in the Freistatt Christian educational center. His mother promises to fetch him at Christmas, giving him a sense of temporary hope.

Wolfgang is greeted in Freistatt by Brockmann, who appears friendly in his garden but soon reveals the center's stern culture. He reads aloud from Wolfgang's juvenile acts, and the staff notes the boy's aggression, renitentness, and disobedience. The encounter sets the tone for Wolfgang's harsh introduction.

The home operates like a barracks, with 'brothers' addressed to the staff and a boss who boasts a 25-year tenure since 1943. The atmosphere is rigid, controlled, and designed to enforce conformity. This backdrop frames all subsequent discipline and punishment.

During a punishment of the weaker pupil Mattis, Bernd enforces the 'group ranks' concept. The others help police discipline, and Wolfgang watches as the system disciplines individuals collectively. The cycle underscores how the group enforces control over each other.

Anton, another boy from Osnabrück, reaches out and forms a bond with Wolfgang. He reveals his shared origin, forging a connection in the oppressive setting. This friendship offers Wolfgang a rare sense of solidarity within the home.

The pupils toil in the peat mire under strict supervision. When Wolfgang complains about waiting for boots in two months, Brother Wilde beats him with a spade. The punishment illustrates the severity of the regime and Wolfgang's stubborn stance.

Wolfgang makes an escape attempt into the mire, but the labyrinthine terrain thwarts him. The failed attempt heightens his resolve to resist and exposes the difficulties of leaving Freistatt. The encounter entrenches the sense of being trapped.

Misconduct leads to collective punishments such as food deprivation or a ban on smoking. The housefather lets the pupils administer punishments to each other, then consoles the group afterward. This dynamic reinforces fear, ritual, and dependence on the system.

During mounting desperation, Wolfgang hands a letter to Angelika, the house father’s daughter, asking his mother to take him out of Freistatt. Angelika claims she was approached but delivers the letter to her father anyway, who discovers it later. The moment hints at a possible route out of the institution.

Wolfgang tries to steal tomatoes from the garden and is caught. He is submerged in a water barrel until nearly drowning and then beaten with a baton for continuing to harvest the crops. The episode underscores the brutality used to maintain order.

On Christmas Eve, Brother Krapp's presence hints at deeper abuses, and a service ends with heightened tension. Angelika hands Wolfgang a bell-bag containing the house key to open the door, but his father blocks the escape. The moment marks a pivotal, muffled attempt to break free from Freistatt's grip.

In the basement, Wolfgang is chained and nearly unconscious, with visions of past traumas. The opening credits hint at an incestuous moment with his mother on a beach, casting a long shadow over his sense of family. The scene deepens the film's dark psychological terrain.

In a moor confrontation, Wolfgang injures Brother Wilde's eye with a spade and flees with Anton. They reach Osnabrück by horse transport, and Wolfgang discovers that Anton lacks real parents or roots. This escape demonstrates Wolfgang's stubborn drive toward freedom, even at the cost of risking more danger.

Brockmann returns to regulate Wolfgang's path and take him back to Freistatt, while Anton has already been taken up. The family members' visit and the system's grab-and-go dynamic continue to echo through the narrative. The moment underscores the ongoing cycle of reprieve and relapse into the institution.

After the moor escape, Anton hangs himself and the pupils attack Wilde, attempting to resist the institution's agenda. Wolfgang's demeanor becomes resigned and exhausted, yet he remains present in the struggle. Eventually he is released when his stepfather is fatally injured; he returns home, borrows money, and leaves by train, watching Freistatt fade in the distance.