Directed by American playwright and novelist Todd Komarnicki, Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. reached US cinemas on November 22nd, 2024. It is set to reach German theatres next Thursday. But not everyone is pleased.

Bonhoeffer’s family wrote an open letter (in German only) denouncing the crude depiction of the prominent theologist and WW2 resistance fighter. They argued: “Dietrich Bonhoeffer would never agree with a movement that relies on lies, division and violence. It is deeply disrespectful to misuse his life and work for political purposes that are diametrically opposed to his beliefs”. Theologians and historians have launched a petition with a very similar view. Key cast members Jonas Dassler, August Diehl, Moritz Bleibtreu and Nadine Heidenreich too have publicly distanced themselves from the film. As a result, “Pastor. Spy. Assassin” has been dropped from the film title. The gun on the US poster too has vanished, as has the background image of Hitler. But the undertones are still there.

American distributor Angel Studios are in charge of the film. That’s the company behind The Sound of Freedom (Alejandro Monteverde, 2023), a film accused of stoking QAnon conspiracy theories, about an American agent fighting sex traffickers in Colombia. Nevertheless, the movie enjoyed box office takings of more than $240 million.

Bonhoeffer has the dubious potential to become equally successful. The reasons are hardly cinematic. On a technical level. this 132-minute film is basic at best. Cinematography is shoddy, costumes and makeup look unconvincing and the plot is a calculated misrepresentation of biographical facts. The German dubbing is particularly atrocious (nobody ever spoke like that). Most crucially, the seemingly harmless inaccuracies promote thinly veiled bigotry.

Komarnicki’s Bonhoeffer (Jonas Dassler) returns from his studies abroad to find his home country in the grip of the rising Nazi party, which he calls “an invasion from within”. He joins the resistance under prominent Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller (August Diehl). Bonhoeffer travels to the UK as a secret agent. He indirectly convinces Churchill (only recognisable from the signature cigar) to declare war on Germany, and organises a plot to kill Hitler. He is supported by his brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi (Flula Borg) and brother Klaus (Leonard Tryde). His assassination attempt is foiled, and Bonhoeffer is subsequently executed at the Flossenbürg concentration camp.

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A righteous killer?

The convoluted narrative shifts between present and past purely in order to ravel in kitsch and sentimentality. Bonhoeffer’s role in the attempted assassination of Hitler is wildly exaggerated: the real-life Bonhoeffer did not travel to the UK in order to plot Hitler’s assassination, he merely provided his British counterparts with useful information about the war crimes of Germany. His efforts to rescue Jews were the true reason for his arrest, not his plans to murder Hitler. In Komarnicki’s Bonhoeffer, our noble resistant hero is turned into a religious vigilante hellbent on killing. Bonhoeffer is transformed into a prophet for evangelical fundamentalists, his humanism and altruism relegated to the background. That’s precisely the opposite of what the real Bonhoeffer stood for.

The depiction of Hitler on the original US poster is more than sensationalist advertising. It’s a cue for the target American audience. Ultra-conservative radio host and writer Eric Metaxas often compares recent events in US politics to German history. To him, the Führer is Joe Biden, not Trump (nevermind Elon Musk’s Nazi salute). He is the author of bestselling Bonhoeffer biography Bonhoeffer – Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy: A Righteous Gentile vs. the Third Reich, 2009. Similarly to the film, historians and theologists have accused his book of historical errors and embellishments. For better or worse, he helped to coin the term “Bonhoeffer moment”: a moment of moral clarity when one has to act against one’s own principles in order to prevent evil. For Komarnicki’s Bonnhoeffer, that’s killing Hitler.

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Racist stereotypes

Historical inaccuracies and religious undertones aren’t the only issue with Bonhoeffer. The film also contains condescending clichés of Black people.

During his seminary studies in the US, a young Bonhoeffer accompanies his Black student Frank (David Jonsson) to a Harlem jazz club. Promptly, the only white guy is asked on stage to play with Louis Armstrong who applauds him together with the whole club. The scene oozes supremacist smugness. This is emphasised by Frank’s lack of individual motivation. This black character exists solely for the purpose of promoting Bonhoeffer’s equality credentials.

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The wrong school lesson

An associate warns Bonhoeffer that he will get his hands dirty while carrying out the assassination plot. The film’s hero replies: “that’s all I have to offer”. He proceeds to compare himself to David who slew Goliath, before claiming that Hitler is the first evil ruler whom he can stop. Bonhoeffer preaches: “when Christ calls a man he bids him: come and die”, just as the other man is about a detonate an explosive-laden belt. He encourages suicide bombings in the name of Jesus Christ. Both the director and the distributor deny any connections to Metaxas’ biography. Neve mind the glaring similarities besides the title, that Metaxas promoted the film on X, and mentions it on his website. He is in the process of crowdfunding for a Bonhoeffer series based on his book.

Kinostar claims on its website that “Todd Komarnicki made a film which decidedly speaks out in favour of the fight against right-wing thought”. Given Angel Studios’s track record, this is just as credible as the German dubbing. Kinostar chief executive Michael Rösch hopes that kids see Bonhoeffer in a more positive light: “There is a great interest in Bonhoeffer, not only by viewers interested in Christian themes but also by those interested in historical and humanistic themes, and of course schools”. This film would indeed make great teaching material: as a case study of how film can be used as toxic propaganda, and instrumentalised for the ideological opposite of what it purports.

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The three images on this article are stills from Todd Komarnicki’s Bonhoeffer.