Escape from Germany
Escape from Germany
Escape from Germany: Very few artists engage their artistry the way Utah filmmaker T.C. Christensen utilizes his work to channel his faith, with remarkable Latter-day Saint concepts demonstrating sincerity in films such as ‘The Fighting Preacher’, ‘Love, Kennedy’, ’The Cokeville Miracle’, ‘Ephraim’s Rescue’ and ‘17 Miracles’.
The same is true for Christensen’s latest, “Escape From Germany,” where Christensen — as director, screenwriter and cinematographer — beautifully weaves a little-known episode of German history from the pre-World War II era into a tale of belief and steadfastness. Many viewers who have faith as Christensen does will appreciate the film far more than others will.
It is late August 1939, and Latter-day Saints’ President and Prophet Heber J. Grant orders his missionary, Elder Barnes (Played by Landon Henneman) to deliver a message to the US Consul to Stuttgart stating ‘get out of Germany, our hitler is about to invade Poland,’ credentials been the military specialists at the US Embassy in Berlin don’t envisage that happening. But Barnes says Grant is a prophet so his information may be better.
At this time, the call comes from the mission headquarters to all the people in Germany to hurry so that all missionaries are evacuated to Belgium or Denmark before the Nazis shut the borders and the fighting begins. In Stuttgart, the mission president has given a rather hazardous task to one missionary, Elder Norman Seibold, who travels alone across Germany to collect the remaining twenty or so stray missionaries who have been left behind in different towns and train stations so that they can be provided with passages out of the country.
While Seibold takes up this difficult and dangerous task, President Wood and Elder Barnes are preparing their bags and their families in order to make it to a place where the chances of ill occurring are minimal. This turns into an unexpected adventure, especially since Wood has to engage in some dubious and quite illegal activities.
In adapting the historical novel “Mine Angels Round About,” written by Terry Bohle Montague, Christensen succeeds in creating some considerable drama in Siedbold’s seemingly futile quest as the Wood family frantically attempts to leave the country. There are also hints that there’s more at stake, such as the Jewish family trying to escape from Germany’s wrath that the protagonists repeatedly bump into.
Some of these themes are not so welcome such as one missionary bringing up that Hitler himself always enjoyed the church’s rules regarding food and bloodlines — which they do, but it’s not something the person intending to show off thinks it is.
Stephen Wuthrich is known for portraying the founding Smith of the Latter Day Saints Church, but in this case, he takes the role of stalwart hero Seibold who wears a heavenly professional suit that is expected of a missionary and McConnell as mission president who seems to stay focused on the real purpose of his work.
Shooting took place in Budapest and Salt Lake City’s suburbs and its credits that Christensen’s team has managed to recreate the European train of 1939 era without burning too many holes in their pockets.
Sadly, this pattern of Christensen’s – where he converts even the most mundane event in the plot to a Sunday school class – is again apparent here, with every interesting change of events or random occurrence being viewed as an intervention from God. Sermons benefit from miracles, but miracles do not make for good scripts.
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- Genre: Drama, History, War
- Country: United States
- Director: T.C. Christensen
- Cast: Sebastian Barr, Joseph Batzel, Ischa Bee
