Triumph of the Heart, written and directed by Anthony D’Ambrosio, is nothing less than a masterpiece of filmmaking. This new movie, focused on the last days of St. Maximilian Kolbe, releases to theaters on September 12th.
The latest in a growing line of films based on lives of the saints (Padre Pio, Cabrini, Carlo Acutis: Roadmap to Reality), Triumph of the Heart picks up the story of St. Maximilian where most of our knowledge of him leaves off. We know he was born in Poland, became a Franciscan Friar, was missioned to Japan, promoted devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, started a magazine and radio station. At the outbreak of World War II, he kept publishing, criticizing the Nazi regime, which resulted in his arrest. He ended up at Auschwitz, where he volunteered to take the place of a man chosen to starve to death.
Triumph of the Heart begins as the guards at the camp look for a recently escaped prisoner. To deter more escape attempts, they randomly choose ten men to starve to death. When a chosen prisoner cries out, “My wife! My children!” Maximilian (Marcin Kwasny) risks his own life by stepping out of line to volunteer to take his place.
The film then proceeds to give us a fictional glimpse of what life in the starvation block may have looked like for the ten men, some of whom lasted two weeks without food or water.
It takes skill to film a story that primarily takes place in one room, and D’Ambrosio has shown that he has that skill in spades. As the days go by, the film introduces us to the backstories of many of Father Kolbe’s companions. Learning about these men, their dreams and their loved ones, makes the film poignant and heart wrenching as we see each of them grow weaker by the hour.
The actors infuse their characters with the pathos proper to each. Christopher Sherwood, who plays Officer Fritzsch, the camp official who condemned the ten men, excels in capturing what happens when the power of love clashes with hate. The way he embodies the slow spiral into the crazy obsession Fritzsch experiences the longer the starving prisoners survive, drives home just how much hatred eats at a person’s soul.
Marcin Kwasny, as Father Kolbe, presents a calm martyr, ready to do whatever he can to provide solace to others, even as he’s dying himself. Kwasny shows the depth of Kolbe’s love for the men with whom he shares imprisonment with every movement and facial expression. With their frames wasting away, Maximilian insists that the men huddle together around him. He puts his arms around these men, who have become brothers in their suffering.
The film’s representation of the Blessed Virgin Mary came as a pleasant surprise to me. Since I want you to experience it for yourself, I’m not putting any spoilers here. I’ll only say that both the Black Madonna, Our Lady of Czestochowa (Lauren Cimorelli) and the Immaculata make an appearance.
In a world where redemptive suffering is looked upon as weakness, Triumph of the Heart shows beautifully that the cost of love is worth paying.