The Ninth Day

The Ninth Day
Directed by	Volker Schlöndorff
Produced by	Jürgen Haase Wolfgang Plehn Jean-Claude Schlim
Written by	Eberhard Görner Andreas Pflüger
Starring	Ulrich Matthes August Diehl Bibiana Beglau
Distributed by	Kino International
Release date(s)	Germany: November 11, 2004 United States: May 27, 2005
Running time	90 minutes
Country	Germany Luxembourg Czech Republic
Language	German

The Ninth Day is a German film, made in 2004 and directed by Volker Schlöndorff. It was released by Kino International.

The film is about a Catholic priest from Luxembourg who is imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp, but released for nine days. The story is based on a portion of Pfarrerblock 25487 (ISBN 2-87963-286-2), the diary of Father Jean Bernard (1907–1994). "Pfarrerblock 25487" was recently translated into English by Deborah Lucas Schneider. The English-language translation is entitled "Priestblock 25487: A Memoir of Dachau" (ISBN 978-0972598170) and was released in 2007.

Plot

Henri Kremer, a Catholic priest from Luxemburg, is imprisoned in Dachau. He experiences the horrors of the camps, including the crucifixion of some of his fellow prisoners, when one day he is given an unexpected leave of nine days. He returns to his native city, where the young SS officer Gebhardt tells him that he should convince his bishop to cooperate with the Nazis. Gebhardt, himself a former candidate for the priesthood, tries to convice the priest that the role of Judas is just what God wants from him. Kremer is confronted with a hard decision: Should he betray his Church or should he return to the concentration camp?

External links

• The Ninth Day web site
• Press Book
• The Ninth Day Web site in Luxembourg
• The Ninth Day at the Internet Movie Database
• H. Marcuse's page comparing film and memoir
• Detailed review in Opuszine
• Decentfilms.com review