"A Hidden Life" is a clear and profound challenge to crises and beliefs. This is an intimate epic about the great power needed to resist, and the courage people need to uphold their virtues during a crisis of faith, and in a world that may never give them back. There is no doubt that this is the best film director Terrence Malick has returned to the Cannes Film Festival since " The Tree of Life ".
"A Hidden Life" is that the director goes against his usual theme with a timely and urgent point of view. The protagonist is a faithful Austrian, he chose prison instead of fighting for the Nazis. This tortured film follows the tone of the director's "Tree of Life", but the gentle and contemplative atmosphere has been repeatedly weakened by distant evil forces, which are rapidly eroding the lives of these characters. The director turned the protagonist into a Christ-like figure, martyrdom himself for his faith. In a three-hour movie, in a world that is more and more indifferent and evil, the protagonist’s sacrifice is painful.
"A Hidden Life" is undoubtedly the best film by director Terrence Malick since the 2011 "Tree of Life" won Palme d'Or, it is also the most memorable film since then, and perhaps the director's most sentimental film. And the film is slow and meditative, requiring the audience to sink into and succumb to some maddening special Terrence Malick style.
