Terrence Malick tackles love and Nazi resistance in A Hidden Life trailer

Fans of sweeping cinematography and mystifying narratives rejoice, because the first official trailer for Oscar-nominated visionary Terrence Malick‘s latest movie A Hidden Life has arrived.

The stunning clip features Malick’s aesthetic signatures as it documents the emotional and physical plight of a rural Austrian man, Franz (August Diehl), who struggles to maintain his loving relationship with Franziska (Valerie Pachner) while refusing to fight for Nazi forces in World War II-era Europe.

Malick’s reality-based story follows the Austrian peasant farmer’s life prior to the war, filled with overwhelming affection for his new lover, though their world comes crashing down when Nazi forces storm their picturesque country village with the threat of thrusting them into violent conflict. As Franz refuses to participate, the Germans seek to execute him, though his unwavering faith and his love for his wife and kids allow his resisting spirit to endure.

“I can’t do what I believe is wrong,” Franz says in the preview, between shots of his imprisonment, intimidation, and physical abuse at the hands of the Nazis. “We have to stand up to evil.”

A Hidden Life — which bowed to positive critical reaction at its 2019 Cannes Film Festival world premiere screening and costars Matthias Schoenaerts, Bruno Ganz, and Michael Nyqvist — releases Dec. 13 in theaters. Watch the film’s first trailer above.

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