TERRENCE MALICK HAS long been associated with spirituality. The director’s philosophy background, poetic style, and love of nature results in art that urges viewers to engage deeply with the world: Ask difficult questions, doubt, and believe.
But A Hidden Life, Malick’s latest, may be the most faith-oriented film yet from the director of The Tree of Life and The Thin Red Line. Through the story of World War II-era martyr Franz Jägerstätter, Malick explores what it means to wrestle with Christian conscience during rising xenophobia and violence. Jägerstätter (played by August Diehl) was an Austrian farmer executed for refusing to swear loyalty to Hitler. For Malick’s purposes, he becomes an audience surrogate as he encounters his community’s reactions to the Third Reich, and later a Christ figure.
Malick spends significant time establishing the beauty of Jägerstätter’s life before the war. We’re given glimpses of his village and farm, witness romantic moments with his wife, Franziska (Valerie Pachner), and fall in love with them and their home.
But, as Hitler’s ideology spreads, Jägerstätter’s neighbors change. The mayor (Jürgen Prochnow) spews nationalist rhetoric that brings to mind the language of Donald Trump and his supporters. A miller in town desperately asks, looking into the camera, “Is this the end of the world? The death of the light?” Meanwhile, Jägerstätter must consider: If called to serve in the army for Hitler, what will he do? What part can a farmer in rural Austria play in resisting evil?
There is resonance with how it feels to be a Christian today. We’re experiencing mass migration, climate crises, and systemic injustice. But for many of us who don’t live near seats of power, in large cities, or near the border, the direction of world events feels out of our control, and distant. We wonder if maybe these problems don’t have to affect us if we don’t want them to. Besides, what could we do to change anything?
A Hidden Life answers that question: Even small personal actions carry immense weight, as long as we’re willing to stick to our principles when challenged. The lives of everyday Christians such as Jägerstätter force a reckoning with faith and the cost of discipleship. Perhaps we should ask ourselves these same deep questions.
Abby Olcese is a freelance film critic and writer based in Missouri. You can find her on Twitter @abbyolcese.
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