Stations of the Cross

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Dietrich Brüggemann directs. Alexander Sass behind the camera. Vincent Assmann cuts. Produced in Germany. Dialogue in Latin, German, French.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Released 12 years ago.
• 2Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Latin, German, French.
• 3Directed by Dietrich Brüggemann, shot by Alexander Sass. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 4Editor Vincent Assmann shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 5Lea van Acken and Franziska Weisz and Florian Stetter carry the top of the cast.
• 6IMDB entry: tt3465916 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 7Released under 19 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography

Alexander Sass

Editing

Vincent Assmann

Production design

Klaus-Peter Platten

Costume design

Bettina Marx

Makeup / hair

Anke Thot

Sound

Martin Frühmorgen

Runtime

110 min · 1h 50m

Status

Released

Original language

DE

IMDB

Stations of the Cross (2014) ↗

Also by

Dietrich Brüggemann

• 
  Run If You Can

  2010 · ★ 6.7
• 
  Move

  2012 · ★ 6.4
• 
  Scene of the Crime

  1970 · ★ 6.2
• 
  No

  2021 · ★ 5.9
• 
  One Shot

  2011 · ★ 5.1
• 
  Heil

  2015 · ★ 5.0

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Official Trailer

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Reno2015-07-30
  ★ 7/10

  Religious and children, is sometime uncool. It was surprisingly an amazing movie. Related to the religious thing, but science had a fair amount of display in the narration. You don't have to be religious to watch this film. You know I enjoyed the movie as a subject that portrayed in a conflict manner. In the end, whatever happen or wins are the best conclusion for a cinematic story. The contents are supposed to be the path the human walked through the past 2000 years, not on the interest to raise the issue. The film was clear on the matter, that is how the movie had the upper hand to receive respect everywhere. The story was told in the multiple episodes. The story deals on the basis of the each episode's title that I can clearly say it had something to do with the Christian faith. Because it follows the same order. Since I don't belong to any, it became a study material. From the introduction to the conclusion, it was well maintained pace, that is slow. But in the middle, I was almost drifted away from my concentration. Somehow managed to hold back my position like I always do and finished watching it by liking it very much. You can take the movie and its contents in many angles. It is up to you, but either way the movie succeeds in balancing and revealing the facts. Leaves you make your own verdict, because you know what's right and wrong being a human to believe in religion or in science, which both were the creation of ours. Sometimes these both do not require to understand life, just like the animals which survived alongside us for very long without civilization revolution, religious faith and proper law and order. The point is the one who understands the life and those who don't bother about knowing it, lives better than being confused between the line and seeks the shelter of religious. An easiest camera work for the cinematographer. All he has to do was to place the lens in a right position and that's it, the rest would be monitored on the television screen where the director seated, I believe. Because there is no camera panning except in a couple of places, other than that it was motionless and the characters appears in the front to perform. The cast has to memorise the lines of those scenes that covers up to non-stop 10 minutes. "My religion has put a ban on running in circles in a gym." More like a stage play where setting for one frame (view) is always there and keeps changing for each scene with the different backgrounds what the script demands. My initial thought was, it might have been based on the play, but I still don't know the answer to that. Probably not, because it won an award for the script at the Berlin film festival. Yep, I loved the presentation, it was so cool and beautiful. From this what I have learnt was the involvement of minors in the religious ceremony is kind of inhumane. It's okay to teach them, but some rituals and sacrifice are way beyond acceptable. Those innocent minds have no experience of the difficulty of life, they're yet to explore it. Being poor or someone in the family is very ill should not be the reason to force them to take part. It is the great issue in all the religion. I think physically and mentally affecting take part in the religious ceremony must not be allowed for the underage. I had mild doubt over opting it to view in the earlier, but went for it to refresh from my regular kind of cinema and it did not fail to have my full attention, well I managed, did not I? I am happy I tried to have a different cinema, in fact the filmmakers given the distinct one, so I appreciate them. In the todays world, young film fanatics are addicted to either Hollywood/British or Korean films, but there are plenty of hidden gems in front of us that they're neglecting to have a glimpse. I would recommend this for the adults, they need to watch this more than children and young adults. 7/10

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  UFA Fiction

  DE

• 

  ZDF

  DE

• 

  ARTE

  DE

Key crew

• Production Sound MixerJacob Ilgner
• ProducerFabian Maubach
• ProducerJochen Laube
• Line ProducerMichael Jungfleisch
• Makeup ArtistAnke Thot
• Costume DesignBettina Marx
• Sound DesignerMartin Frühmorgen
• ProducerLeif Alexis
• Makeup ArtistMareike Mohmand
• EditorVincent Assmann
• Sound Re-Recording MixerHolger Lehmann
• Production ManagerKonstantin Kapsalos
• Production DesignKlaus-Peter Platten

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• religion
• religious fundamentalism

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical2014-11-09

Also known as

International titles

• KorsveienNO
• Пътят на кръстаBG
• 14 Estações de MariaBR
• Vía CrucisCL
• KorsvejenDK
• Camino de la cruzES
• Chemin de croixFR
• Οι σταθμοί του σταυρούGR
• KeresztútHU
• Kreuzweg - Le stazioni della fedeIT
• Droga krzyzowaPL
• Estações da CruzPT
• Крестный путьRU
• Marias vägSE
• Stations of the CrossNL