New: "Life for Life: Maximilian Kolbe" (DVD)

Now available from Ignatius Press:

Life for Life: Maximilian Kolbe (DVD)

This DVD can only be sold in the US and Canada

Auschwitz, 1941. One of the prisoners, Jan, escapes from the German concentration camp while working at a gravel pit. Thanks to the help of good-hearted people he finds shelter. There Jan hears tragic news about ten random inmates sentenced to death by starvation by the Nazis as a punishment for his escape. One among the convicts is Fr. Maximillian Kolbe, a Franciscan priest who volunteered to die in place of one of the inmates.

Now Jan is not just fleeing the Nazis, but also from his guilt for his involvement in Kolbe's death. He goes to visit Niepokalanów, a very large Franciscan monastery where Fr. Kolbe had been the founder and superior. There Jan wants to learn what were the motives behind his decision to die for another prisoner, a complete stranger. Though free from Auschwitz, Jan will continue to be confronted by the life and death of Maximilian Kolbe wherever he goes.

In addition to Jan - torn between wanting to forget and a fascination with Kolbe - another key character emerges, Brother Anselm. He is a devout young Franciscan priest who quietly but strongly witnesses to Kolbe's heroic faith and love, and then rejoices at the Beatification of Kolbe by Pope Paul VI. Later Kolbe will be canonized by his fellow countryman, Pope John Paul II, who proclaimed Kolbe as the "patron saint of the difficult 20th century".

This acclaimed film was directed by Krzystof Zanussi, and stars Christoph Waltz and Edward Zentara in powerful performances.

In Polish, with English and Spanish subtitles.  

Includes a 16-page Collector's Booklet and Study Guide with color photos, and text by Catholic film critic Steve Greydanus

Praise for Life for Life:

"Life for Life reflects thoughtfully on what the cult of the saints means for us, on the nature of hagiography itself. Perhaps more than any film I can think of, it explores how the saints can and should inspire us, if we are open to them, or how we may stumble at them if we are not. For this reason alone, it's among the most essential saint films I've seen."
-Steven Greydanus, Film Critic, National Catholic Register

Video trailer:

Comments

[Sharon]

I am a little confused that Maximilian Kolbe was canonised as a martyr and so didn't have to have any miracles attributed to him. Why was he considered a martyr? Granted he did a wonderfully brave act but he wasn't killed because he was a Catholic so why was he considered to be a martyr? Has the definition of the word martyr changed? I am similarly confused re St Teresa Benedicta who wasn't killed because she was a Catholic but because she was a Jew.

[Elizabeth D]

I know with St Teresa Benedicta the Church had spoken up in defense of Jews and the Nazis viciously retaliated by rounding up specifically Jews who had converted to Catholicism and putting them to death, this was why they sought her out at the convent. She was indeed killed both for being a Jew and for being a Catholic. Maximilian Kolbe was obviously taken to the death camp because he was a Catholic priest. When a man who the guards arbitrarily were going to kill protested he had a family, Kolbe said "take me, I am a Catholic priest." And they did, and the man who was spared lived to tell about this priestly and breathtakingly Christlike self-sacrifice.