Director Grant Fraser
Rated M
Score 6/6

Strangers to the World examines individual moral courage in the face of almost overwhelming pressure from the world to conform and in doing so, act against that conscience. A dramatised documentary starring Rachel Griffiths and Oscar Redding that examines the lives of two people, Etty Hillesum and Franz Jaegerstaetter, who both stood their ground against the Nazi oppressors in Europe in 1943 and suffered with their lives.

Headed into this one I really didn’t know what to expect and as soon as I realised the extent of how much of a ‘dramatised documentary’ it actually was I asked myself ‘is this really a documentary?’ and ‘ is this more of a collection of short films?’ I also thought given the way that the filmmakers structured large portions of this documentary that it would be brilliant if it was performed on the stage.
However, the stories of Etty Hillesum and Franz Jaegerstaetter are very important and need to be told. Current events has caused it so that a movie quote has been rattling around in my head for the past few days and I suppose it’s a little odd to quote an action movie from the late 90’s (The Boondock Saints) but it’s a valid point so be patient with me. The line from the movie is ‘do you possess the constitution, the depth of faith, to go as far is as needed?’ going by what I learnt from Strangers to the World, both Etty Hillesum and Franz Jaegerstaetter did and that is why they should be admired. I was kind of impressed by Rachel Griffiths’ and Oscar Redding’s performance. It has been a couple of years since I have seen Griffiths in a role and probably even longer for Redding. I really didn’t think I would be saying something like this in a review for a documentary, but I loved Neil Pigot as the bishop.