Though Maria (Lea van Acken) lives in the modern world, she remains faithful to a Catholic radicalism that requires sacrifice and devotion at every turn. As she struggles to balance her desires with the dictates of her family’s faith, she makes ever more perilous sacrifices, attempting to please a God she worships in the pious hopes of curing the autistic younger brother she adores.

Told in fourteen fixed-angle, single-shot tableaux that parallel Christ’s journey to his own crucifixion, this cinematic passion play from Dietrich Brüggemann is an “austere, beautifully filmed and powerfully acted portrait of extreme religious fervor” (The New York Times) that was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Script and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Berlinale.

“Belongs among the decade’s best films about the lengths one must go to in order to balance strong beliefs with a tolerance toward a secular world that fights against those beliefs.” –Paste Magazine

DIRECTED BY DIETRICH BRÜGGEMANN
GERMANY | 2014 | GERMAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES