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By Kayla DeKraker
TRIUMPH OF THE HEART, an inspirational new movie which released on Sept. 12, details the true story of Catholic priest St. Maximilian Kolbe who “sacrificed his life in Auschwitz so another man could live.”
“Right now, we’re living in a really silent despair,” director and writer Anthony D’Ambrosio said at the movie’s red-carpet premiere. “I think that this culture and what we’re experiencing all around us, even though we have perhaps the greatest wealth and the greatest comfort of any civilization ever, we are seeing mental health plummeting, people being unable to find themselves, confused about who they are. I was one of those people.”
Kolbe was sent to Auschwitz in 1941.
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“Never abandoning his priesthood, Kolbe was the victim to severe violence and harassment. Toward the end of his second month in Auschwitz, men were chosen to face death by starvation to warn against escapes. Kolbe was not chosen but volunteered to take the place of a man with a family,” Catholic.org reported.
He lived out Christ’s command found in John 15:13: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
D’Ambrosio found courage in the priest’s story as he battled a chronic mold infection that resulted in anxiety-inducing insomnia.
“When I started to write this story, I was seeking a reason to live. I was seeking hope in the midst of my suffering,” he revealed. “I hope that this movie and this story can be sort of a love letter to the world, that no matter where you are, no matter what suffering you’re going through, no matter how humbled or lost you feel, that God is with you in that place and has hope for you on the other side of it.”
D’Ambrosio added, “I’m still an artist who has freak outs. We’ve been through so many moments of despair, where it felt like this thing was going to fall apart, where there was no way that we were going to make it. And in the midst of all of that, there’s been a massaging of my heart to be able to have faith, to have hope that God is behind me, that God is going to help me no matter what circumstance. As long as I’m faithful and offering myself to Him, God is going to make something beautiful out of that gift of suffering and gift of courage.”
Movieguide® gave TRIUMPH OF THE HEART a -1 content score. The review calls it, “an inspiring, gripping, beautiful movie. Marcin Kwaśny gives an incredible performance as Maximilian Kolbe. TRIUMPH OF THE HEART has a strong Christian worldview. Kolbe reminds his fellow prisoners of Jesus Christ suffering on the Cross.
The review adds, “TRIUMPH OF THE HEART has some content about the Virgin Mary that Protestants may find objectionable. The movie also has a few obscenities and profanities, some strong bloody violence and intense scenes of confrontation.”
If you want an inspirational film about someone who was willing to lay down his life for another, check out TRIUMPH OF THE HEART.
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