Der Fall Jägerstätter

Alternating between early-1970's interviews with his wife, priest, and other villagers and re-enactments of his final months, the film follows Austrian peasant farmer Franz Jaegerstaetter's path to martyrdom under the Nazis. The first scene shows his execution, followed by a graveyard tableau in which Franz objects to his priest's praise for a fallen soldier's patriotism. Arguments between Franz and his priest and then with a bishop follow, with the clerics both insisting that he owes military service to his country and that he has no right to choose defiance and certain death. His wife Franziska, the priest, and other townspeople comment on his life. The story moves on to his refusal to be inducted into the German army and the many attempts by Austrian/German military authorities to get him to change his mind, as they confront and question him, first in Linz and then in Berlin. The military court is seen as reluctant to execute him but afraid not to. Franz refuses to compromise, even to accept an assignment to a non-combat corps. At the end, his execution is seen again, followed by comments from townspeople.