RICHARDSON, Texas — Eighty years after the death of St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Catholic priest who offered his life in Auschwitz so another man could live, his story is being brought to the big screen in “Triumph of the Heart.”
For Anthony D’Ambrosio, the film’s writer and director, the story is a deeply personal exploration of suffering, faith and sacrificial love and a response to today’s culture of “silent despair.”
“Right now, we’re living in a really silent despair,” D’Ambrosio told The Christian Post at the red carpet premiere of the film, held at the University of Texas at Dallas on Sept. 8.
“I think that this culture and what we’re experiencing all around us, even though we have perhaps the greatest wealth and the greatest comfort of any civilization ever, we are seeing mental health plummeting, people being unable to find themselves, confused about who they are. I was one of those people.”
D’Ambrosio speaks from personal experience: Several years ago, he was diagnosed with a devastating chronic mold infection that left him with anxiety-inducing insomnia. It was during a “dark night of the soul,” where he was unable to sleep, hear God’s voice or hold down a job, that he began to write the story that would become “Triumph of the Heart.”
“When I started to write this story, I was seeking a reason to live. I was seeking hope in the midst of my suffering. And I think that I’m not alone in having that struggle,” he shared.
Kolbe, canonized as a saint in 1982 by Pope John Paul II, is remembered as the “martyr of charity” for volunteering to die in place of a fellow prisoner at Auschwitz in 1941. It was through delving into Kolbe’s life and examining his faith that D’Ambrosio rediscovered his faith and regained his own will to live.
“I hope that this movie and this story can be sort of a love letter to the world, that no matter where you are, no matter what suffering you’re going through, no matter how humbled or lost you feel, that God is with you in that place and has hope for you on the other side of it,” he said.
Based on true events, the film is set largely in a starvation bunker in Poland, where Kolbe, along with nine other men, was held for 14 days. In the bunker, the men grapple with their looming death, the reality of evil and the meaning of forgiveness.
For the 30-something filmmaker, bringing Kolbe’s story to the screen came with its own challenges and, oftentimes, mental anguish he attributed to spiritual warfare. To bring the script to life, he immersed himself in Kolbe’s story, lived with the Franciscan friars in Poland and visited prison camps to understand what the priest endured.
“I’m still an artist who has freak outs,” he shared. “We’ve been through so many moments of despair, where it felt like this thing was going to fall apart, where there was no way that we were going to make it. And in the midst of all of that, there’s been a massaging of my heart to be able to have faith, to have hope that God is behind me, that God is going to help me no matter what circumstance. As long as I’m faithful and offering myself to Him, God is going to make something beautiful out of that gift of suffering and gift of courage.”
That experience, he said, has reshaped his outlook on his purpose: “I would say that I’m willing to be poor, I’m willing to enter into the darkness and difficulty that God is calling me to and bear my cross, and ultimately, to trust Him in the midst of that,” he said.
D’Ambrosio said the film intentionally drew parallels between Kolbe’s sacrifice and the Passion of Christ, offering audiences a meditation on love that transcends fear and despair.
One of the film’s most poignant moments involves prisoners wrestling with God’s goodness amid overwhelming suffering. It’s those moments, D’Ambrosio said, that speak to the very heart of Kolbe’s witness.
“Part of what I experienced when I was in that space was that people very easily dismissed it, He said. “‘God must have a plan. There’s a reason for all this happening. Everything’s going to be OK.’ Not that those things are bad, but I think … God should answer for this terror that has been allowed.
“His answer is Christ on the cross. His answer is that He is with us and is willing to bear everything that we have to bear,” he continued. “As a good leader, a good Father, He says, ‘I’m going to show you the way out of this, and that is by actually accepting, surrendering to this suffering and turning to me in it, and inviting me in, I can make something beautiful out of this, even now.’”
“I think that’s what I hope this movie shares with the world.”
Unlike Hollywood blockbusters with multi-million-dollar budgets, “Triumph of the Heart” was built on little more than faith, conviction and community; the film was entirely crowdfunded by those who believed in D’Ambrosio’s vision.
D’Ambrosio shared how he and producer Cecilia Stevenson worked with limited resources, often relying on collaborators who labored for little or no pay, united by the belief that Kolbe’s story needed to be told.
“Satan wants to divide. And you need perfect unity to be able to do something excellent,” he reflected.
“Ultimately, on set, there was always this fighting against the tension between different departments, between [the producer and photographer] and myself, creatively. How do we all love each other first?
“That’s where the battle is won. Can we start with love and then find our way through these stressful and very difficult issues? And I would say that the miracle is that all of us love each other at the end of it, and that is what has allowed this movie to be made.”
“Triumph of the Heart” hits theaters on Sept. 12.
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
