A Hidden Life

Based on real events, from writer-director Terrence Malick, A Hidden Life is the story of an unsung hero, Franz Jägerstätter, who refused to fight for the Nazis in World War II. When the Austrian peasant farmer is faced with the threat of execution for treason, it is his unwavering faith and his love for his wife Fani and children that keep his spirit alive.

Drawn largely from actual letters exchanged between Franz and his devoted wife Fani while Jägerstätter was in prison for his refusal to pledge an oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich, the film differs from Malick’s previous films in that it is his first biographical film centered on real people whose descendants are still alive and who entrusted him with Franz’s legacy.

Malick’s first two films were the now critically acclaimed Badlands (1973) and Days of Heaven (1978). Then, following a self-imposed retirement of nearly two decades from filmmaking, he shot his 1998 adaptation of James Jones's The Thin Red Line (1998), which was nominated for 7 Academy Awards ©, including nods to Malick for directing and adapted screenplay.

Like Stanley Kubrick, who took well over a year to edit his films, Malick has adopted a characteristically slow-paced style of movie-making. He directed The New World (2005) and the autobiographical The Tree of Life (2011) with gaps of only seven and six years. In an unprecedented burst of productivity, he shot his next four films, To the Wonder (2012), Knight of Cups (2015), an as-yet unnamed drama, and the cosmic documentary Voyage of Time: Life's Journey, prior to his outing with A Hidden Life.