Fire Rider

Frankfurt 1796. The talented and handsome poet Friedrich Hoelderlin takes up a position as private tutor in the banking family of Gontard, a position his friend and patron Baron Isaac von Sinclair had arranged for him. Sinclair loves Hoelderlin and wants to have him close by. It is not long before Hoelderlin and the wife of his employer, Susette, fall in love with each other. Their relationship doesn′t remain hidden to the jealous Sinclair, and he informs Gontard of the wife′s affair. Hoelderlin has to leave the house without knowing who was responsible for the end of his love affair.

Sinclair takes Hoelderlin in and looks after him when the first signs of his later madness make themselves felt. Susette and Hoelderlin meet secretly once a month, for an hour. Hoelderlin′s most beautiful poems are written during this difficult time. However, nobody wants to acknowledge his bold way of writing. Torn back and forth between his passion for poetry, his love for Susette and Sinclair who also still desires him, Hoelderlin loses everything.

Source: German films Service & Marketing GmbH