As we're now in the fourth quarter of the year, the awards season campaign is beginning to ramp up for the movie studios.
First out of the gate is Terence Malick's 'A Hidden Life', based on the true-life story of Franz Jägerstätter, an conscientious objector in Austria who was eventually beatified by the Catholic Church for his refusal to fight for the Nazis and eventual martyrdom. Jägerstätter's life has been chronicled many times in books and his own writings from prison, but this is the first time it's been given a feature-length adaptation on the big screen.
August Diehl plays Jägerstätter, and there's a who's-who of German-language talent like Bruno Ganz from 'Downfall', Michael Nyqvist from 'John Wick', Jurgen Prochnow, and Mathias Schoenarts in supporting roles. Malick's movies, up until now, have typically been unscripted and filmed on the fly. However, for 'A Hidden Life', he stuck closely to script and while it clocks in seven minutes shy of three hours, reviews from Cannes are calling it an engrossing watch.
Given what's going on in the US at the minute, with children literally being ripped from their parents' arms and forced into concentration camps, and a tyrannical leader bringing a country to a cliff edge, it's not surprising that 'A Hidden Life' has a lot of resonance.
'A Hidden Life' arrives in Irish cinemas on January 17th, 2020.
