Defender of the Faith (film)

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Movie
German title Defender of the Faith
Original title Defender of the Faith
Country of production Germany
original language German , English
Publishing year 2019
Rod
Director Christoph Röhl
script Christoph Röhl
production Martin Heisler
music Ali N. Askin
camera Juan Sarmiento G.,
Julia Weingarten
cut Martin Reimers

Defender of Faith is a German investigative feature documentary film by the author and director Christoph Röhl from 2019 . The film tells the story of Joseph Ratzinger and his role in the traditional system of beliefs and power in the world headquarters of the Catholic Church in the Vatican, as well as his work in the context of the upheavals in the Catholic Church in the 20th century. The world premiere took place on May 14, 2019 at DOK.fest Munich . The film opened in cinemas from the end of October 2019.

content

The 90-minute film traces the life of Joseph Ratzinger, starting with his ordination in 1951, through his time as theology professor and prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to his surprising resignation from the papal office in 2013. The film continues with the over 30-year-old Ratzinger's activities in the Vatican and shows how the young innovator of the Second Vatican Council became an advocate for the preservation of a conservative Catholic Church. It documents how Ratzinger has shaped the Catholic Church over the past 60 years and how he led it into its greatest crisis. Numerous interviewees in the film, all of whom are and were active within the clerical system, make clear through their statements which role Ratzinger played in the extensive power system of the Vatican and to what extent he contributed to the loss of trust that the Catholic Church suffers from. The film also focuses on Joseph Ratzinger's closest advisers and confidants, and makes it clear how they were involved in concealing the global abuse crisis and in corruption scandals. The interview partners deal critically with the image of Ratzinger as a modest scholar, the film documents how Ratzinger participated on the one hand in the second Vatican Council, which promised a cosmopolitan awakening, and on the other hand played an essential part in the backward development of the church.

background

The starting point and background of author Christof Röhl for his research on the film were personal contacts with former students of the Berlin Canisius College in connection with the abuse at the Odenwald School , about which he made a film. With those affected by the abuse at the Odenwald School, where he worked as an English tutor from 1989 to 1991, he discussed the parallels between the abuse at the liberal, reform-pedagogical Odenwald School and the Catholic Church. The subject of abuse was originally intended to be just one aspect of the large-scale film about Joseph Ratzinger, but it became a key element of the documentation during the course of the film work, as Röhl states in his article in the magazine Voices of the Time . Röhl experienced the path of the Catholic Church under Ratzinger as a dead end, which, in his opinion, has led “to defame, discredit, disavow, or, as Tom Doyle puts it in my film, in favor of good and believing people with their truths were “sacrificed” to the hierarchy ”.

production

The doors of the Vatican were open to the author and director Christoph Röhl for research and for his film work. He started his research for this film before Benedict's resignation. He spoke to insiders, confidants, church experts and critics around the world in order to get to the bottom of Joseph Ratzinger's complex story. The Vatican has granted access to its extensive film and image archive for this film. Many of Ratzinger's companions, experts and close confidants like Georg Gänswein were interviewed, but also critics of the Pope emeritus. Interview partners are Klaus Mertes , Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Doris Wagner , Tony Flannery, Wolfgang Beinert , Hermann Häring , Christa Pongratz-Lippitt, Thomas P. Doyle , Archbishop Charles Scicluna , Xavier Léger, Pablo Perez Guajardo, Emiliano Fittipaldi , Marie Collins. Röhl was able to film both in front of the scenes and behind the scenes, he was given access to rare archive material and was able to draw on a wide range of historical material. The film has a consistently stringent dramaturgy, the voiceover comments between the interviews and scenes that are cleverly lined up in the German version are spoken by Tatort inspector Ulrich Tukur . The producer of the film is "RFF - Real Fiction Filmverleih eK".

reception

In the relevant media, Röhl's film is generally perceived as an “analytically far-reaching narrative”. Catholic media such as the St. Michaelsbund of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising critically examine the core messages of the film on the one hand, but do not question the documentary quality of the film on the other. Thomas Stöppler writes: "The film does not skimp on criticism and does not paint an objective, but therefore no less worth seeing picture of the Pope emeritus". Guido Horst writes in the Vatican magazine: “The portrait film 'Defender of Faith' by Christoph Röhl about Joseph Ratzinger / Benedikt XVI. draws the picture of someone who has failed and attaches it like a distorting mirror to a supposedly outdated church that must now resign ”.

In the Süddeutsche Zeitung , Matthias Drobinski describes the film as a 'theses film': “Christoph Röhl's documentary about Benedict XVI. is not a film about Joseph Ratzinger's life and work. Röhl produced and assembled a theses film; this is what makes 'Defender of Faith' so powerful and at the same time marks its limits ”. Regarding Röhl's intention in the selection, montage and dramaturgy of the documentary elements, Drobinski says: “That is the strength of the film: It is not cynical or malicious. He is sad about what he has to show: how Joseph Ratzinger became complicit in his system of thought through imprisonment. "

Thomas Lassonczyk writes in filmstarts.de about the style of the work: “Very elaborately produced documentary film about the rise and fall of the German Pope Benedict XVI., Who hardly leaves a good hair at the Vatican and the Catholic Church. Very well done, even if the implementation of the film follows the common style principle of talking heads on television. "

Criticism pro

The reviews, which rated the film as positive overall, do so especially with regard to the critical examination of the contradictions of the Ratzinger era. In its report on the premiere, the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation , which is by no means regarded as critical of the church, states: “The message at the end of the film is clear: With Benedict, not only a Pope, but an entire era failed. His church as a monarchist-authoritarian entity has come to an end - at least in the eyes of many believers ”.

The magazine “Voices of Time” published by the Jesuits states under the title “Ratzinger's blind spot”: “Christoph Röhl paints the picture of a tragic personality who has always been concerned with the truth and the Holy Catholic Church, but who is Lost sight of the crises of the time ”. Christoph Renzikowski writes in DOMRADIO.de , a broadcaster sponsored by the educational organization of the Archdiocese of Cologne : “Röhl not only considers the pontiff from Bavaria to have failed personally, but also sees him as a particular type of cleric who wants to save the institution and is doing it hides the suffering of the victims. A one-sided view, but one that is difficult to avoid in its stringent presentation. "

Criticism contra

Some reviews weigh up the movie's strengths and weaknesses. In the Catholic online magazine “Kirche-und-Leben”, Gerd Felder comes to the conclusion: “The greatest strength of the new film, its focus on the failure of Benedict and his image of the church, is also its weakness: the claim to be a Ratzinger portrait To deliver, the film, which is sometimes brilliant with great shots and illuminating observations, does not do justice ”.

Media and people close to Joseph Ratzinger criticize both the design of the film and its content. The papal biographer Peter Seewald criticizes in the daily mail that the film, “to keep up the crude thesis of the failed Pope, who is basically responsible for all the abuse and thus for the crisis of the Catholic Church”, fails to mention “that Ratzinger was already prefect I set the course for the fight against abuse and consistently continued the zero-tolerance policy towards church abusers even as Pope and suspended around 400 clergy ”.

The Viennese Cardinal Christoph Schönborn criticizes somewhat more cautiously and says that anyone who claims that the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger did not face the issue is not acknowledging the facts. Rather, Joseph Ratzinger / Benedict XVI. has taken decisive action against sexual abuse since the 1990s. The German Bishops' Conference also criticized the film. Their spokesman Matthias Kopp showed u. a. point out that Benedict XVI. was the first Pope to ever have met with victims of abuse, but this is kept secret and makes the film dubious.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the cinema since October 31, 19: "Defender of Faith". nordmedia.de, accessed on November 6, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Film screening: Defender of the Faith. dokfest.de, May 14, 2019, accessed October 29, 2019 .
  3. Jump up ↑ the program and cinema trailer “Defender of Faith”. realfictionfilme.de, accessed on November 26, 2018 .
  4. ^ Daniel Sponsel: Defender of the Faith, content. filmportal.de, accessed on October 30, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Jörn Schumacher: The Ratzinger system: Preservation of power through silence and denial. pro-medienmagazhin.de, October 27, 2019, accessed on October 29, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Eric Leimann: We were Pope, but it didn't work. prisma.de, accessed on October 30, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Christoph Röhl: Ratzinger's blind spot. Herder / Voices of Time, October 1, 2019, accessed October 29, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Investigative research on "Defenders of the Faith". nordmedia.de, accessed on November 6, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Homepage RealFiction. realfictionfilme.de, accessed on October 30, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Christoph Renzikowski: With still images on the side of the reformers. domradio.de, May 15, 2019, accessed October 30, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Headpage from mk-online. mk-online.de, accessed on October 30, 2019 .
  12. ^ Thomas Stöppler: New documentary about Benedict XVI. mk-online.de, October 29, 2019, accessed on October 29, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Guido Horst: The old Catholica is in the pillory. vatican-magazin.de, October 29, 2019, accessed October 30, 2019 .
  14. ^ Matthias Drobinski : How sexual violence was played down. sueddeutsche.de, October 30, 2019, accessed on November 1, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Thomas Lassonczyk: Defender of the Faith: Criticism of the Filmstarts editorial team. filmstarts.de, July 25, 2019, accessed October 30, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Tragic hero? New documentary discusses the failure of Benedict XVI. br.de, May 17, 2019, accessed October 29, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Christoph Röhl: Ratzinger's blind spot. Herder / Voices of Time, October 1, 2019, accessed October 29, 2019 .
  18. ↑ Imprint DOMRADIO. Domradio.de, accessed on October 30, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Gerd Felder: Film "Defender of Faith": Benedict XVI. as a failed. kirche-und-leben.de, accessed on October 30, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Seewald considers Benedict documentation to be “dubious”. die-tagespost.de, October 29, 2019, accessed on October 30, 2019 .
  21. ↑ Schönborn: Ratzinger took decisive action against abusers. Catholic.de, October 29, 2019, accessed October 29, 2019 .
  22. ^ German Bishops' Conference criticizes film about Benedict XVI. kathisch.de, October 31, 2019, accessed October 31, 2019 .