On a windswept remote island in the North Sea, Hein has returned from the mainland to his tiny village after 14 years’ absence. Why do so many of the villagers refuse to recognize him, or claim he is an impostor — even his own family members and the now-grown man who was his inseparable teenage friend? When the close-knit village decides to hold a community trial to prove if Hein is who he says he is, long-held secrets and memory itself will be put to the test.  

Winner of the Teddy Jury Award at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, Trial of Hein is told with the power and simplicity of a timeless parable: Hein’s return exposes the fragility of human societies under the corrosive forces of suspicion and conformity. Brilliantly staged outdoors among precarious houses with no walls, and suffused with Hein’s longing to belong and the pain of ostracism, this fable by director Kai Stänicke (Golden, Frameline39; It’s Consuming Me, Frameline36) is a near definitive recipient of Frameline’s Out in the Silence Award, which is given to an outstanding film project that highlights brave acts of LGBTQ+ visibility in places where such acts are not common.