FAITH BUILDERS
Photo: Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures
Faith&Friends
A Hidden Life Lyrical film explores an Austrian farmer’s valiant stand against the Nazis. by Geoff Moulton
W
ar comes not only with a physical toll; there is also a spiritual cost. For those who take arms against oppressive regimes such as Nazi Germany, it is difficult enough. But what would it have been like to have been recruited by the Nazis? Would any person’s faith have stood up under such pressure? A Difficult Decision A Hidden Life chronicles the reallife story of conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter (August Diehl), an Austrian peasant farmer in 1939
26 • JUNE 2020 I faithandfriends.ca
who lives with his wife in the small village of St. Radegund, then part of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. When the Second World War breaks out, Franz is conscripted into the German army, called to basic training and forced to spend months away from his family. As a soldier, he has difficulty reconciling his Christian faith with blind allegiance to the Nazis. Fortunately, France surrenders in 1940 before Franz is deployed, and it seems as though the war might end. Franz is sent home, and director Terrence Malick invites us to dwell
