Until we die or be free in cinema: inside and outside culture

He was called the “King of Escape”: Walter Sturm, a Swiss criminal, was repeatedly imprisoned for his crimes, but mostly got out again – on his own initiative, without the approval of the judiciary. Director Oliver Reese has now turned this wildlife into a movie – apparently fictional: “Till we die or be free.”

In it, Walter Stürm becomes a character that you really care about. He is clever, lonely, amusing in his demeanor, adept at disguise, which often consists in the ill-fitting suit of a businessman. That in itself is quite funny, his dialogues are nothing short of Storm, played by Joel Basman, who is the only one allowed for humor in this movie.

Switzerland reacts harshly to rebellion – the desire for freedom grows

Rihs does not turn the story into a movie about the escape and pursuit of a gangster, but instead confronts Stürm’s actions with the zeitgeist in Switzerland. In 1980, young people in Zurich took to the streets to protest against the regime, and soon riots broke out as the regime violently resisted. At the same time, Rihs shows an outbreak of Stürm. He jumps out of a police station window and shoves angry protesters, this time disguised as a police officer. A very poor choice in the field, but Sturm takes advantage of it and steals a police car at the same time.

Among the protestors is attorney Barbara Hogg (Mary Leuenberger). She is on the side of the detainees. You are present at negotiations, her young client comes from Germany, which rescues her from a Swiss reformatory, but Oliver Reiss makes a grandiose display of the ruthlessness with which the judiciary reacts to a youthful rebellion.

He later returned to repression with Sturm, who deplored the inhumane conditions in prison until the Zurich youth included the subject in their experimental catalog at some point. By then, attorney Hogg has also met fugitive Storm, and helped him escape across the border to the FRG and house him in a revolutionary dungeon lair.

There politics mingles with crime, a thief who breaks into cupboards without ideology or empties jewelry stores meets armed resistance. The film falls into revolutionary clichés, everyone is in hysterics or paranoid, only Walter Storm retains apathy. But the beautiful thing is how both sides benefit from each other, one wants weapons and the other wants protection.

Everyone promises everyone what they want to hear, regardless of reality. After that, Rihs for a long time tries to keep everyone involved in the game, rather than staying near Stürm, with whom one would rather spend time than exceptionally stupid German terrorists. The combination of opposites does not add to the suspense of the story, but allows it to veer apart.

Still, there’s plenty of Storm to see, including another daring prison escape and get ready for it, and once Reese tends to the cinema, you can feel the oomph that can develop. In the end, Barbara Hogg and her group of lawyers in Zurich turn the King of Escape into the figurehead of a movement advocating prison reforms.

Sturm becomes the driving force behind the street protests, whether he likes it personally or not, whether or not that publicity puts him at risk. As the title suggests, the movie deals with freedom of movement and freedom of spirit, showing how people fought for it in the early 80s. But the smart thing is that it also indicates how freedom fighters serve their own interests at the expense of others.

Until we are dead or free, Switzerland / D 2021 – Directed by: Oliver Reis. Camera: Felix von Moralt. With: Joel Basman, Marie Linberger, Gila Haas. Arrangement: Port au Prince, 118 minutes. Theatrical release: March 31, 2022.