Martin Doblmeier's Bonhoeffer is a film about faith and action, and the relationship between the two. It is a portrait of Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a brilliant theological student who became an influential church leader, took a stand against Hitler, was involved in a plot to assassinate him, and was executed a fortnight before the end of World War II.
Doblmeier uses fairly conventional documentary techniques to establish his story: a voiceover narration, archival footage, interviews with contemporaries of Bonhoeffer and theological scholars, historians and figures from the church, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, an admirer. Klaus-Maria Brandauer provides the pastors voice, reading from his work and correspondence.
Bonhoeffer was a child of privilege: his father was a psychiatrist and professor,
his mother was from a prominent family. The death of Bonhoeffer's older brother
in World War I left a mark on the family: it helped to propel Bonhoeffer towards
He studied under some powerful figures, including Karl Barth and Reinhold Niebuhr: he was also influenced by time spent at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, where the intense, emotional embrace of faith, and the involvement of the church in social issues made a strong impression on him. A French pacifist, Jean Lasserre, was also also a significant influence.
Doblmeier traces the course of Bonhoeffer's spiritual and political development, with occasional forays sideways - into, for example, a debate about the extent of Martin Luther's anti-Semitism. He also traces the relationship between the church and the Nazi Party, noting that those who spoke out, in a crucial declaration, against the government's threat to church independence, were silent about its anti-Semitism - an omission Bonhoeffer deplored.
Doblmeier also sketches Bonhoeffer's transformation from activist, pacifist and religious leader to a conspirator prepared to be involved in political assassination. It's harder to flesh out this aspect of his life: it can only be narrated from a distance. Bonhoeffer is a conventional but thoughtful portrait of a powerful figure whose struggles with issues of faith and action still resonate strongly.