It’s important to have beliefs…

A Hidden Life is the story of Franz Jägerstätter (August Diehl) who refused to fight for the Nazis in World War II. When the Austrian peasant farmer is faced with the threat of execution for treason, it is his unwavering faith and his love for his wife, Fani (Valerie Pachner) and children that keeps his spirit alive.

After the mistakes of running around the streets of LA (Knight of Cups) and Austin, Texas (Song To Song); writer/director Terrance Malick actually steers back to form here with a very visually lovely tale that is pointed in certain political ideologies that sadly still ring true today.

It’s a story that undoubtedly deserves to be told and one that just hasn’t been told enough in the span of our lives.  Whereas a couple of his previous films were a little too free form, here we get characters that we are invested in.

It feels like a cousin to his 2005 film The New World, which gives us plenty to be invested in while still having the prerequisite shots of fields of grass and someone twirling in them.  Diehl and Pachner are both quite solid in their leading roles as they stand up against the bulling of the system that the war has thrust them into.

A Hidden Life is solid Malickian type cinema that will earn several mentions towards the end of the year, but it you won’t be able to shake the familiarity of it all either.