100
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
This is moviemaking on the highest dramatic, psychological, and moral plane.
The Ninth Day (Der neunte Tag)
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- Germany,
- Luxembourg,
- Czech Republic
- 2004
- · 98m
Director
Volker Schlöndorff
Cast
Ulrich Matthes,
August Diehl,
Hilmar Thate,
Bibiana Beglau,
Germain Wagner,
Jean-Paul Raths
Genre
Drama
Catholic priest Henri Kremer, who is imprisoned in Dachau, is unexpectedly given a leave of nine days. He returns to his home, Luxembourg, where a SS officer tries to convince him to tell his priest to work with the Nazis. Kremer soon finds himself facing a difficult choice: betray his church or return to the concentration camp.
Stream The Ninth Day
What are critics saying?
83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Bill White
The dark, rotting interiors and sunless winter skies create a festering atmosphere of unexpiated guilt as Kremer ponders the question of how a decent man is to navigate the rivers of hell.
80
The A.V. Club by Keith Phipps
It's important for the film to establish the concentration camp as a hell on earth from the start, but Schlöndorff has more in mind than creating another reminder of the inhumanity of fascism.
80
The New Yorker by David Denby
Powerful, concise, fully sustained.
80
Variety by Derek Elley
A thoughtfully written drama of ideas with vivid performances by August Diehl and Ulrich Matthes.
80
L.A. Weekly by Ella Taylor
A morally complex and emotionally satisfying drama about the vagaries of Catholic response to the Third Reich.
75
New York Post by V.A. Musetto
It doesn't measure up to Schlondorff's 1979 Oscar winner, "The Tin Drum," but it's compelling nevertheless.
70
The New York Times by Dana Stevens
Succeeds in illuminating an almost unimaginably dark story.
70
Chicago Reader by J.R. Jones
Like Costa-Gavras's "Amen." (2002), this German drama uses a true story to examine the Catholic church's response to the Holocaust, but it focuses less on institutional politics than on personal conscience and responsibility.
63
Miami Herald by Marta Barber
The Ninth Day is far from perfect, but is still thought-provoking and intriguing, a film that can begin its own kind of debate.
60
TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox
A grim meditation on faith and betrayal that focuses on a relatively obscure corner of Holocaust history: the fate of the Catholic clergy under the Third Reich.
50
New York Daily News by Jack Mathews
Earnest but ambling drama.
50
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
Plays best as a dry exercise in historical doublespeak and rationalization.
50
The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt
The film is thought-provoking but not terribly involving.
Loading recommendations...
Loading recommendations...