- Content: Inside BONHOEFFER: Unwavering Faith and Determination Against Evil
By Movieguide® Contributor
Bonhoeffer: PASTOR. SPY. ASSASSIN. producers Emmanuel and Camille Kampouris gave Movieguide® a little glimpse of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s fight against Hitler ahead of the movie’s release next month.
“The movie is about Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was a pastor that grew up in…an amazing wonderful family, and we showed the family because it helped form him, and it is during World War II. We first meet him when he’s very young in 1914,” Camille told Movieguide®. “So they go through World War I and II. What’s so interesting about Bonhoeffer, he was so brilliant. He couldn’t be ordained until he was 25, so he actually comes to New York and spends a year at Union Seminary and it changes his life.”
Bonhoeffer made friends with an African American and began to see how African Americans suffered from segregation and prejudice. When he returned to Germany, he immediately began to speak out about Hitler.
“His first battle is with the church.” Camille continued, “They are being co-opted. They’re not doing enough. They’re more interested in preserving their power and getting to know this new leader rather than taking a stand against the evil that he’s beginning to perpetrate.”
The church didn’t respond well to Bonhoeffer’s cautions and banned him from Germany and from writing.
“Eventually, he will join the resistance and be part of a plot to assassinate Hitler,” she said.
The producers believe Bonhoeffer’s story is relevant today, given the world’s current events.
“You can look what’s going on in Israel and the evil that’s been unleashed on Israel, which is amazing, and then, you have, the response, especially for the young students, everything on the states that are supporting Hamas as supporting, you know, they’re anti-Israel,” Camille said. “So this is one area…and when we did this movie, there was no such thing as what we’re going through now, but there was a lot of anti-Semitism growing in Europe in 2010. We were thinking…’Look what’s happening in Europe. Look what’s happening in France,’ you know?”
“We were reading that Jews were leaving France on mass kind of back then but…we really see this as a global film,” Camille added. “If you look in Iran, you see women being beaten for not wearing a headcoat covering, you know. You look at what’s happening in the Sudan to Christians and in Nigeria…with Boko Haram, they’re going into villages and so we’re seeing so much evil unleashed on innocent people.”
“Conspiring to bring an end to the Nazi regime, he fearlessly spoke the truth while facing unyielding oppression and evil. His impact is still felt around the world today…”
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Bonhoeffer believed that the church exists for others. He was driven to be a voice for the voiceless, which is why he stood up for Jewish people.
“He was always listening, always attentive,” producer John Scanlon Bonhoeffer-pastor-spy-assassin-an-interview-with-producer-john-scanlon/">said in another interview. “He was unforgiving of himself and very self-disciplined and radical in his commitment to discipleship and to faith. And that cost him because he saw those things being attacked and undermined in the Germany of his day. So, there was a lot of heartbreak for him along the way and a lot of disappointment, but ultimately there was triumph.”
“We really hope young people will see this film,” Cammille said. “That’s why we chose a young actor because Dietrich was young when he started his journey and when he started speaking out. When he came back from Harlem, he was like 23 and they are growing up in a world that I could not have imagined growing up in, you know?”
“You didn’t have the internet so that anybody can say anything, you know, against you and criticize you or against things you cherish or your beliefs,” she explained. “But it’s also — and this is why we were excited about the movie — it’s also a great opportunity for the church. So it’s just a great time to be a light.”
The idea for the movie, which is based on a book, started 12 years ago. The producers took “great care” because they wanted it to be the best it could be. It took seven years to develop the script, and obstacles followed for the last five years.
“We just didn’t want this to be an American film, and our co-partners are European,” Cammille said. “It’s actually absolutely a European film.”
“The cost of discipleship tells you how costly faith is,” Cammille said. “Bishop Bell spoke at his [Bonhoeffer’s] funeral and said he was so young and yet he was completely unafraid of anyone, and that’s just a kind of a courage I think that has to come from the Lord.”
God’s word meant everything to Bonhoeffer. He was a strong believer in mediating in scripture. He wrote a book about Psalms and preached about the church forgetting “it’s first love.”
“Later, he talked about religionless Christianity, and people have thought, ‘Oh did he turn his back on God?’ and when he actually meant was what we want is not the trappings of Christianity that a cathedral or a church or home group can bring. He wants the real Christianity,” Cammille said.
You can catch movies/Bonhoeffer#:~:text=Bonhoeffer%3A%20Pastor.,In%20Theaters%20November%2022%2C%202024">Bonhoeffer in theaters on Nov. 22.
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