Emancipation (2011)

An uncommon story of love and resilience, eMANcipation tackles its delicate subject (a singular group of men who inhabit a shelter for abused men) with both honesty and sensitivity. The story revolves around Dominik Liebmann: a man who has lost everything: His wife, son, job, house - even his pride. Financially and emotionally bankrupt he enters Berlins first and only "Männerhaus": a shelter for battered men. He meets Holger the director of the house and its members. After a psychiatric examination by the youth welfare office he has to participate in the Group Therapy Session of the "Männerhaus" in order to get custody for his son Dylan. After an initial resistance Dominik decides to participate and so the other members of the "Männerhaus" learn about Dominiks past... Director Philipp Müller-Dorn takes a daring and provocative look inside the world that very few men, out of embarrassment or retaliation, speak of: domestic abuse by their partner. In the dramatic film eMANcipation, Müller-Dorn has opened a door for a conversation that has been long overdue.