Director Brings Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Bold Faith to Big Screen in New Movie

Published: November 25, 2024

Director Brings Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Bold Faith to Big Screen in New Movie

Movieguide® Contributor

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s commitment to fighting evil in the face of immense danger inspired director Todd Komarnicki to create BONHOEFFER: PASTOR. SPY. ASSASIN. — displaying the pastor’s incredible faith when all odds are stacked against him.

“Your faith is not…an island that you get dropped off on once you meet Jesus, and then that’s where you stay,” Komarnicki told Movieguide®. “It’s actually a living breathing thing, and it takes a lifetime to work out, and Dietrich represents for me that kind of faith. He was unafraid to follow the call that he felt in his heart from God.”

Bonhoeffer “was a pacifist pastor who became one of the assassins of Hitler, and…he was of singular mind and heart who stood up against Hitler, first and loudest, and never stopped battling evil for the last 12 years of his life. Once he saw even the earliest designs of Hitler’s plan, he was the beautiful voice that stood on the hill and warned the world.”

Bonhoeffer acted in faith and lived his life fearlessly for the gospel. Komarnicki was drawn to his courage and bold faith.

“He was unafraid to put himself in the way to protect the Jews of Europe and any group that was under pressure or forgotten,” the director explained. “He really lived out the gospel, and very few people live out what they believe.”

“You think…of someone sitting stiffly at a desk maybe with a quill pen, and you know, living a quiet, obscure life — he was the opposite,” Komarnicki said of Bonhoeffer. “He lived face forward, and everyone around him said the same thing: ‘[He’s] very funny…a compelling personality, a child prodigy, a pianist, a brilliant mind’ getting his doctorate in theology as a teenager. It’s just a person that…stood out.”

Though the pastor had a lot to lose by standing against Hitler, he did it anyway.

“He came from privilege; he had his whole life laid out before him. To have an easy go of it…and he didn’t blink; he just said, ‘Look, this is wrong. You can’t put a man at the head of the church and especially a Führer. You can’t kick God to the curb and worship a man,’ and that’s what Hitler demanded the German people do, and the German Church helped him pull that off. So somebody had to say something, and it fell to Dietrich Bonhoeffer.”

Like many movies about true events, it’s impossible to include everything. And Komarnicki had to cut some important things out.

“The exchange of the Jewish prisoners at the Swiss guard, so I could have made a whole episode of television out of this one exchange, easily,” he told Movieguide®. “It could have been an hour and 15 minutes, but you can’t have a movie that suddenly stops and becomes something else, so I had to take all these secrets that were uncovered about the plot to smuggle the Jewish prisoners in and where the money came from to supply it and how ultimately this led to Dietrich being arrested, but it would have been a rabbit hole to go down, and even if it was done brilliantly, people in the audience would be [thinking], ‘Okay, can we get back to the actual story?’”

“So I’m not sorry it’s missing, but I do think if people want to do a side journey into history, the plot to smuggle the Jewish prisoners into Switzerland is a fascinating, fascinating tale,” he said.

BONHOEFFER officially released in theaters on Friday, Nov. 22.

Lauren Daigle wrote and sang the end title song for the movie.

She shared on social media, “When I read the book Bonhoeffer, I never expected to one day to write an original song for a film about his life. I am thrilled to share that my original track ‘Then I Will’…!”