Sometimes when life gets stressful here by DC I’ll watch the last few minutes, which depending on my mood is either a depiction of the Millenium or the Zion-like farming hamlet that I want to move to.įirst saw this in my BYU English class (shout out to Zina Petersen). The cinematography, music, and settings are gorgeous, and the dialogue and themes are very overtly Christian. A Hidden Life is the story of Franz Jägerstätter, a (now beautified) Austrian Catholic living in the Alps who was executed for refusing to fight for the Nazis. Terrence Malik is controversial (aesthetically, not socially/politically), but I like his work. Definitely not for kids, but a very powerful depiction of earnest, concrete faith. The cinematography is experimental (the camera focuses on his face the whole time), which creepingly makes the graphic horrors of the camp happening at the edges seem like a sideshow. A Jewish concentration camp prisoner forced to help dispose of gas chamber bodies comes across the corpse of his son and tries to find a rabbi to say Kaddish. They are rank ordered with favorite=1.Īcademy award-winner for best foreign film in 2015.

I’ve scrounged foreign, domestic, old, and new, and these are the fruits of my labors (in order, so 1= my favorite). Because of their rarity I’m on a lifelong hunt.

It is hard to find a religious-themed movie that is authentically spiritually touching and has good production value, that’s not sappy but also not cynical. Unfortunately, the movie industry generally either shies away from religious themes (unless to deride them), or they fit in the Christian cinema niche that produces simple starches for the masses. A well done religious-themed movie can be a powerful spiritual experience.

The passion of christ movie on fire