![]() ![]() Friends and family beg Franz to reconsider, suggesting his choice benefits no one, and urging him to “think one thing and say another.” The church – now complicit with the Nazis – pretty much abandons him, and with religion lost, all Franz has left is his own faith. These scenes are juxtaposed with his wife’s horrors, as paranoia and fear take hold of their tiny town and Fani becomes an outcast and pariah to the people of St. The rest of the film is concerned Franz’s hellish existence behind bars, where he’s lonely, abused, and in danger of losing his mind. Via voiceover – another Terrence Malick trademark – we hear the letters that the couple exchange, wherein Franz asks “Oh my wife, what has happened to our country.” It’s also here that Franz makes the decision that changes both their lives, his conscientious objection landing him in prison awaiting trial. Franz is sent to the military camp to prepare for battle but doesn’t believe in the Nazi cause. Watch the trailer for A Hidden Life below:īut the storm clouds – both literal and metaphorical – are approaching, and when WWII arrives, their peaceful existence is shattered. But unlike some of his more recent films – namely To the Wonder, Knight of Cups, and Song to Song – the naturalism never slips into cliché or self-parody, with stunning tracking shots presenting the Jägerstätters as a family at one with nature, finding joy in the tranquility that surrounds them. Such shots are his trademark, and at times reminiscent of the director’s 1978 sophomore effort Days of Heaven. It’s 1939 and Franz lives with his wife Fani and their daughters, working and living off the luscious Alpine land, which allows Malick to fill the film with elegiac imagery of rolling hills, babbling brooks and seemingly endless fields of wheat. Aside from newsreel footage of the Fuhrer overseeing Nazi rallies, parades and processions, the film’s early scenes concern an idyllic life in the quaint Austrian village of St. But where that film placed the audience slap-bang in the middle of the action by depicting the Battle of Guadalcanal, this is a very different kind of war movie, with A Hidden Life playing out a world away from the front line. Malick has already crafted a WWII feature, with 1998’s The Thin Red Line his return to moviemaking following a 20-year hiatus. ![]()
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