Sabina: Tortured for Christ - The Nazi Years

The lengths that this family and this man and these people went through during such a time to live out and spread the faith is remarkable.

I'm grateful I watched this and was sent this by my church community.

To God be the Glory through His Son Jesus Christ's name.

Imitation of Christ is lived out by these beautiful believers during this time in the Soviet Union. It's inspiring.

Wife found out about the film and its Christian historical message and we attended with hope that movie quality and production would appeal to us and curious movie goers. The first third of the movie was a bit quick to introduce the characters and develop relationships but once the leading male character began acting on his new faith the "care" for the characters and their mission solidified the story. Dramatic elements were good and cast and production were solid. It was a bit jarring to feel how the Jewish Star of David forced to be worn by the Jews and the papers looked at by the Nazis to identify and control the Romanian Jews is being played out with Covid Vax docs now in America. Watch the movie with someone important to you and you will feel challenged with how we spend our lives and react to adversity and fear for our safety.

I was not familiar with the Wurmbrand's story. I thought the production was solid as well as the acting. The story is told well. Not on the level of Ghandi, but a great "true story" about forgiveness.

While the overall story was powerful, we did have some issues watching it. There were many points in the movie where the soundtrack and/or background noises were too loud to hear what was being said and there was no option for subtitles on the VOM platform we watched from. This is my reason for the rating. We read later that Sabina was one of the founders of VOM which was not mentioned in the movie or even at the end, an important and interesting fact that we felt should have been mentioned.

This movie is probably the perfect double -edged sword.

On the one hand it is absolutely perfect. Perfect actors, perfect movie sets, music et al. But this movie is obviously not about performance, although the VOM has apparently invested a lot into it, to have their donations rolling.

It is about an incredible story of salvation of the Wurmbrand's, and at least the physical salvation of others, while we are not aware through this movie if spiritual salvations occurred.

My two favorite quotes will give you a glimpse of what awaits you in this movie:

Richard "... it reveals to us the death of our sinfulness, our deep need for a Savior. No, I think, no, I do not want a Jesus who has been calculated, explained and believed in. I want a real Jesus. Is that such an impossible ideal?"

Sabine "From the day of my wedding forward, I only ever kissed two men, one my husband, and two, a man who murdered my family."

Now why a double -edged sword?

Because the producers could not take their hands away from the Anglican and Lutheran church. It is incomprehensible why such a movie had to be ruined through denominational divisions. Why could Wurmbrand not simply have found his salvation in a church building which had not been hastily decorated with a big print of 'Anglican Mission to the Jews'? Why did the producer commit the incredible error to involve Luther's name in this movie?

The only reason I see to have included Luther into this movie, -and it would have been a perfect opportunity- would have been to apologize in the name of the Reformed / Lutheran Church for the Holocaust which would probably not have existed without Luther (very hard words but we cannot ignore this well-known truth). But to present now precisely a Lutheran as savior of those who suffered the ugly consequences of Luther's antisemitism, is ridiculous at best, it is audacious.

I deeply respect Wurmbrand for what he has done and suffered, no matter the denomination. But precisely this denomination should have been left out of the movie. It would have been so easy to leave the church door blank and to let him be just a Christian pastor.