A biopic of towering beauty and powerful emotion, A Hidden Life tells the story of martyred Austrian and Catholic Franz Jagerstatter through the unique lens of Terrence Malick, whose poetic and spiritual touch gives life to a challenging, yet wholly compelling and relevant story.
Upholding one’s religious convictions can be a difficult task, especially in todays highly secularised times. When a society has given in to an ideology – whether it be by laziness, fear, or lack of spirit – being the odd man out can be an isolating and even dangerous predicament. Add nationalism to the mix, and the dangers are even more so.
Many speak of the separation of Church and state as the need to save government from religion, yet from the Romans feeding Christians to lions, to present day atrocity of the Uyghur Muslims in China, history has shown that the religious have more to fear from the state. The 20th century especially personifies this, with tyrants such as Stalin, Pol Pot, and Hitler persecuting and murdering those who believe in God, while projecting themselves as gods in the process.
The case of Franz Jagerstatter, upon which A Hidden Life is based on, shows what religious conviction looks like when opposed to such tyranny. A farmer from the Austrian village of St. Radegund, Franz refused to swear allegiance to Hitler when Nazi Germany occupied Austria in 1939. The reaction from the Nazi’s was swift, with Franz imprisoned, tortured, and eventually executed. Back in his once idyllic village, nationalist fever saw his once friendly farming community turn on Franz’s wife and children, who would become ostracized. Even his own church, built upon the theological, moral, and ethical convictions that Franz has chosen to die on, attempts to dissuade his stance. But there will be no change on the matter. Franz rightly viewed Hitler as not only evil, but abhorrent to God’s creation.
Creation plays a significant part in A Hidden Life. As it has been throughout Malick’s films, beautiful imagery of nature in all of its living, breathing, vibrant glory features prominently. Photographed by Jorg Widmer (The Invisibles), A Hidden Life contains some of the most breathtakingly shot scenes of this and any other year. The choice to include such imagery is important. For Franz, his home was paradise on Earth, untouched by the kind of barbarity that World War II would inspire. Malick establishes Franz’s homelife as one of work, family, community, and prayer. To see it severed in such a way where a husband and father is separated from his family, and neighbour turns on neighbour, is heartbreaking.
What doesn’t sever is Franz’s faith. A devout Catholic, his moral stance in the face of monstrous tyranny is one driven by a religion of strong moral philosophy and social justice (before such a thing became a dirty phrase). While there are many questions regarding the Church’s supposed placid reaction towards Hitler and the Nazi’s, there is no denying the fight from many Catholic (clergy and laymen) against this evil, a fight that cost many their lives.
Franz was one of those Catholics, and Malick does a great service to his story, resulting in one of the acclaimed directors best and most focused efforts to date, a film of artistry and emotion, thought and complexity, and a vitally relevant purpose.
