Review | Cannes 2019: A Hidden Life film review – Terrence Malick returns to form with profound second world war drama
- True story of a conscientious objector in an Austrian village who would rather die than swear allegiance to Hitler is superbly acted and beautifully shot
- Imprisoned and told he will regain his liberty if only he will take an oath to serve the Third Reich, lead character Franz says: ‘I am free’
4.5/5 stars
Terrence Malick is back at Cannes with his ninth film – and his first to premiere at the festival since he won the Palme d’Or with 2011’s The Tree of Life. Since then, three more experimental films – To the Wonder, Knight of Cups and Song to Song – have tested the patience of many admirers. But A Hidden Life is a powerful work, unquestionably his most engaging film since his earlier Cannes winner.
A true story set during the second world war, it revolves around Franz Jägerstätter (August Diehl), a rural family man from the Austrian village of St. Radegund. Surrounded by mountains – a landscape Malick and his cinematographer Jörg Widmer make full use of – this little enclave feels far away from the horrors of war. Yet the film opens in 1939 with black-and-white second world war footage, Malick reminding us that, wherever we live, our consciences can never escape the truth.
Franz, who lives with his wife, Fani (Valerie Pachner), and their young daughters, is a conscientious objector who refuses to swear “an oath to an antichrist”, as one character puts it. At first, this causes friction with other villagers, but worse is to come. When he is called up for military duty, he will not swear allegiance to Adolf Hitler, is arrested, and taken to Tegel Prison, where the narrative shifts to 1943.
There Franz is bullied and beaten, as the Nazi officers try to make him relent. “I am free,” he tells a lawyer when informed he will regain his liberty if only he will pledge support for Hitler’s cause.