A pious Catholic priest finds himself faced with having to choose between physical or spiritual survival in the quietly compelling Nazi-era drama, "The Ninth Day" (Kino International), a powerful film that deserves recognition at Oscar time. Loosely based on the prison diaries of real-life Luxembourg priest, Father Jean Bernard, and directed by Jesuit-educated German filmmaker Volker Schlondorff, the picture is an intelligent and emotionally forceful meditation on faith, redemption and the cost of true discipleship.(...) In Schlondorff's fictionalized version, Father Bernard's name has been changed to Father Henri Kremer (Ulrich Matthes - Joseph Goebbels from "Downfall"), and it opens with him already interned in the concentration camp. Without explanation, he is released and given passage home to his native Luxembourg. "The Ninth Day" has a strong moral dilemma which echoes that of "A Man for All Seasons." Both films involve questions of conscience in which the protagonist wrestles with what German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- himself executed by the Nazis -- called "costly grace." from the review by David DiCerto Catholic News Service
