Valerie Pachner and August Diehl in A HIDDEN LIFE
A HIDDEN LIFE is based on a true story about Franz and Franziska (Fani) Jägerstätter, a young couple living in Austria during World War II. Franz refused to swear allegiance to and fight for the Nazis even though he faced imprisonment and execution.
The film is a story about a couple’s courage and commiment to following their convictions in the face of overwhelming pressure to collaborate with the Nazis. Legendary director Terrence Malick contrasts the beatuy of Fraz and Fani’s farm and family life with the ugliness of their neighbors and the ideology of the Third Reich. Valerie Pachner, who stars as Fani, met the couple’s three daughters, who are still alive today.
Portrait of Valerie Pachner
Valerie Pachner plays Franziska (Fani), the wife of Franz Jägerstätter, in A HIDDEN LIFE. She, herself is Austrian like her character in real life, but she was only somewhat familiar with the story of Franz’s decision to accept execution rather than join the Nazis in any way. She tells HollywoodLife now that “it just breaks m heart and it makes me watn to shout and scream,” about the rise in recent years of far right extremism. “It makes me realize how important it is to never forget and how important it is right now to look back in time,” she says.
Characters Franz and Fani Jägerstätter walking together before their separation
Fani and Franz were married for 7 years before they were separated but Fani “always carried [her] love for him throughout all her life.” Valerie told HollywoodLife that she based her character on discussions with the couple’s 3 daughters, now in their 80s, and the couple’s letters that were “sort of edited…and it was published in a book.” The real life Fani Jägerstätter passed away in 2013.
Franz and Fani in an embrace
Valerie Pachner notes that Franz and Fani had a “really real deep love,” something that was unusal for farming couples at the time. Many of their marriages were for practical reasons “they were envied for their love,” Pachner tells HollywoodLife. “Some people are lucky to experience this very deep, very ture love that she had for him.”
Franzi and Fani Jägerstätter in an emotional embrace before Franz is taken away by the Gestapo
Valier Pachner was drawn to the role because she would be “portraying a woman who knows and feels what is right and follows that even though it means to sacrifice a lot or everything.” She took her role very seriously and had to learn how to peform many of the very deamnding tasks of farming including “how to shear a sheep and churn butter…I wanted to get in to the physics. I felt that it has to look very natural, whatever she does. She has to come accross as a very grounded character.”
Franz in Nazi imprisonment
Franz was treated very poorly by the Nazis. He was beaten and tortured both physically and emotionally. He was given several opportunities to sign the oath of allegiance to the Nazis and he refused each time as he and Fani “believed in the good and not in destruction.” It wasn’t until decades after he died that his courage was finally recognized as an Austrian hero and declared a martyr and then beatified by the Catholic Church.
The Hills of South Tyrol, Italy
The majority of the outdoor scenes were shot in South Tyrol, Italy in the summer of 2016. The landscape in South Tyrol includes the Seiser Alm plateau and mountains from the Langkofel Group. However, director Terrence Malick also shot in the Jägerstätter’s own village and inside their farm house, which has been turned into a historic site.
Farmer Franz Jägerstätter in the hills of Austria
Franz and Fani’s real life daughters are all in their 80s and still live near the village that they grew up in and where they were ostracized by their neighbors, who supported Hitler and the Nazis. When the daughters were visiting Valerie on set in the actual farmhouse where they grew up, the actress had a “very emotional meeting” with them. She tells HollywoodLife that “I had taken my hair down in a scene and one of the daughters made it up again into the bun that her mother used to have. It was a very strong special moment.”
