Popular reviews

• 

  Review by Florin Scanlon ★★★★½ 5

  Consisting of 14 long takes, most of them shot from a fixed, unchanging angle, this German film directed by Dietrich Brüggemann tells the story of a teenage girl named Maria who lives in a family of fundamental Catholic principles. Each scene echoes one of the stations of the cross at the time of Jesus' crucifixion, framing Maria's upbringing from a unique perspective that provides insight into notions of faith, its role in everyday life and its impact on a young mind. With its cold tone, unflinching stillness and self-imposed distance, Stations of the Cross draws a thin line between spiritual profoundness and false sense of depth, between clarity and vagueness, religious teachings and indoctrination, parental care and parental abuse.

  The…

• 

  Review by Steven Sheehan ★★★★½ 2

  Fourteen stages of Jesus carrying the cross to his crucifixion are depicted in Christianity and fourteen perfectly paced long takes directed by Dietrich Bruggeman, tell the story of a young girl indoctrinated into a fundamentalist system. Stations Of The Cross is a wonderful example of European cinema at its finest, articulate, restrained and quietly powerful.

  Each chapter takes the title of Jesus' apparent slow walk toward Golgatha. Opening with 'Jesus is condemned to death' Maria sits amongst a group of teenagers listening to their parish priest readying them for confirmation. The strict moralistic tone becomes immediately clear that these kids are raised in a far more orthodox manner than many Christians. Maria ponders how she can sacrifice her own life…

• 

  Review by The Essential ★★★★

  Indoctrination lies at the heart of Stations of the Cross, the bold, new film from German filmmaker Dietrich Brüggemann. Simplistic in form, the film utilises fourteen breathtaking, unbroken shots that unfold within the boundaries of the fourteen Stations of the Cross, traditionally a central, expressive narrative of Catholicism in which Christ is nailed to the cross which is here re-positioned into the slow unravelling of a young teenage mind caught at an involuntary crossroads.

  Continue reading Simon Di Berardino's review over at The Essential.

• 

  Review by Stephen M ★★★★

  This was a deeply unsettling film to watch. A tale of how religious fanaticism (here, an extremely conservative sect of Roman Catholicism) can damage devout teens who buy into the dogma, it first has some elements of black comedy but it becomes grimmer and grimmer. It's quite well done although it was hard to click on the "Like" button for a film that disturbs in this way.

  It resonated for me also because I was raised Roman Catholic and was exposed to both the pre-Vatican Council II rigidity (Latin mass, fasting, emphasis on sin) and the somewhat more enlightened post-Vatican Council II reforms by Pope John XIII that sought to bring the Church into the modern world. The film focuses…

• 

  Review by Iqbal Rizkyansa ★★★★★

  "I'd like to have Jesus with me when I go."

  - Maria

  Gw tadinya mau ngasih banyak komentar utk film ini tapi takut salah karena masalah perbedaan kepercayaan dan bukan lingkup saya sebagai muslim. Jadi ya singkat aja dah.

  Ini dia definisi sebenarnya dari yang namanya 'mabok agama'

  Masih ingatkah kalian belum lama ini di negeri yang tercinta ada anggapan bahwa segala jenis musik itu hukumnya haram? Atau pernyataan-pernyataan lain yang mungkin dianggap melanggar aturan Tuhan?

  Melalui karakter utama seorang remaja wanita, film ini berusaha memberikan gambaran tentang apa jadinya apabila seseorang terlalu taat terhadap suatu kepercayaan hingga menempatkan setiap ajaran yang dipercayai di atas logika umum masyarakat sosial.

  Mungkin ini adalah gambaran secara halus untuk seseorang yang secara berlebihan…

• 

  Review by russman ★★★★

  I almost had to stop the film during the gym scene. The satanic music was getting to me.

• 

  Review by Vince The Cinephile ★★★★ 3

  Dietrich Brüggemann’s clever, simple, yet thought-provoking German drama that examines the burden of Catholic guilt, extreme religious fundamentalism, and bad parenting is extremely scathing and disturbing as it is moving and powerful. This simple drama follows a conservative young Catholic woman whose extreme religious ideals drove her to do such disturbing, tragic acts of self-martyrdom.

  Brüggemann achieved such suffocating, yet calm atmosphere through his episodic-like narrative.The film is cleverly inspired from the real Stations of the Cross, and with its 14 one-long take segments, the film expose the ills of how people clearly abuses religion and put such burden to these innocent, young individuals. And at the core is Maria (parallels Jesus Christ) who is the clear victim of being…

• 

  Review by Grant McLanaghan ★★★★

  Technically excellent (yet resolutely unshowy), featuring super-long takes bolstered by fine performances. And it’s so deadly serious that it could almost be viewed as a comedy. The mother is a fascinating character, but since she’s entirely didactic and keeps herself emotionally distant, it’s nigh on impossible to feel any sympathy for her.

• 

  Review by fran hoepfner ★★★★

  my life is definitely - at the very least - going better than hers

• 

  Review by Hannah Long ★★★★

  Where is the line between self-sacrifice and self-abuse? Between faith and foolishness? This film doesn't provide easy answers to that question, instead suggesting that, perhaps, the two are sometimes the same. Grace abounds, even in our frailty.

  Maria's selflessness and her mother's self-absorption are contrasted starkly. The mother isn't a simple villain - her cruelty is petty and constant, a drip-drip-drip of self-centeredness. Yet she is not without hope - there is a possibility that she will see that her daughter's sainthood (which the film implies is real) shouldn't be seen firstly as yet another instance to demand what she's owed, but as an occasion for grace.

  (For her, as in C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce, "The question is whether…

• 

  Review by Peter Valerio ★★★★★

  Sometimes the structure of a film and its subject matter complement each other perfectly.

• 

  Review by xhnifmx ★★★★

  Maria melangkah terlalu jauh...
  
  Diagnosis anoreksia yang dialami Maria ialah imbas dari pemikiran ekstremis "sesat" yang meracuni otaknya. Terlebih dari cara didikan sang ibu yang kelewat "gila" membuat Maria runtuh betul tentang kepahaman jati dirinya di usia rentan. Gadis ini dicekoki berbagai ajaran-ajaran fanatisme yang kebanyakan bernada soal pelarangan-pelarangan (musik, film, hiburan, hingga teman lawan jenis) secara langsung merenggut hak bebasnya sebagai manusia hidup, mengakibatkan psikis Maria tak bisa tertolong lagi. Di ending, Stations of the Cross memberikan elemen kejam menjelang akhir, membuat audiens terpana dan mengasihani pada jiwa Maria (korban nyata) dari sistem parenting yang sangat salah ini.

  Stations of the Cross sangat mudah dipahami. Diambil dari sistemiah ke-injilan, namun jelas tidak secara mentah, film ini bisa menaikkan derajat ke sebuah makna dan pesan yang sangat kuat disamping naskah padat dan pengemasan sinematografi statis nan long-shot, simple, tapi punya "keajaiban" dalam menuturkan kisahnya.