Nashville, TN (November 30, 2024)
Angel Studios has released the film BONHOEFFER: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.—the movie shares the powerful true story of pacifist-pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who joined a deadly plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, risking his faith and fate to save millions of Jews from genocide. As anti-semitism rises around the world and churches are preaching politics instead of scripture, the words and actions of Bonhoeffer are needed, now more than ever.
BONHOEFFER stars Jonas Dassler (The Golden Glove, Never Look Away), August Diehl (Inglourious Basterds, The King’s Man), Moritz Bleibtreu (Run Lola Run, The Experiment), Nadine Heidenreich (Die Flaschenpost-Insel), David Jonsson (Rye Lane, Industry), Clarke Peters (The Wire, 3 Billboards Outside Of Ebbing, Missouri), and Flula Borg (Suicide Squad, Pitch Perfect 2).
Film Synopsis: As the world teeters on the brink of annihilation, Dietrich Bonhoeffer is swept into the epicenter of a deadly plot to assassinate Hitler. With his faith and fate at stake, Bonhoeffer must choose between upholding his moral convictions or risking it all to save millions of Jews from genocide. Will his shift from preaching peace to plotting murder alter the course of history or cost him everything?
“In 1933, when Hitler attained power in Germany, the first thing he took over was the German church. He used his brute nationalism to sway the Lutheran and Catholic leadership to his way of seeing the world. Within months, Bibles and crosses disappeared from sanctuaries, replaced by copies of Mein Kampf and the ever present swastika.
“One man inside the church decided that political courage was an act of faith, and to stand silent in the face of evil, was in fact, evil itself. BONHOEFFER is the story of that man. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. A son of privilege who traded his very life to fight against Hitler and to stand in the breach to protect the lives of innocent Jews. A man whose books, many of them written in prison, have sold countless millions over the decades. A hero whose statue stands outside Westminster Abbey next to MLK, Jr.’s. A human being who decided that his life was worth trading if it meant another man could go free.
“Remarkably, Dietrich found his faith during his time studying in Harlem, New York City, while attending the legendary Abyssinian Baptist Church, led by Adam Clayton Powell. It was there that Dietrich saw dynamic, joyous faith in action. And he also saw the struggle of blacks to find total freedom in their own country. The racism he witnessed in America gave him a new lens through which to see Hitler’s heinous anti-semitism, long before the rest of Germany understood what was truly taking place.
“Political courage has essentially disappeared in 2023. We live in a time where to open your mouth, let alone your heart, will unleash a trap door beneath our feet. Twitter hasn’t made us bolder with our opinions, but has caused us to shape them to fit our notion of the crowd. We love to pile on, but we dare not stand out. There has never been a better time to show the world that courage is not a luxury, or a fad, it is a necessity if society is to keep from destroying itself.
“Dietrich Bonhoeffer still stands as a lighthouse, to remind us that we need each other. That we are all connected. And where one man suffers, we all do.”