Life For Life

Jan (Christoph Waltz), who miraculously escapes from under a pile of gravel while working at Auschwitz, seizes the opportunity and flees the camp. Local peasants and then monks help him, but his escape triggers a tragic reprisal: the SS sentences ten prisoners to death by starvation, and Father Maximilian Kolbe (Edward Żentara) voluntarily gives his life for one of them. Shaken, Jan tries to understand the Franciscan's motives; working in the monastery’s carpentry workshop, he learns the story of the founding of the Knights of the Immaculate and Kolbe’s charisma. After the war, he attempts to find his family in Silesia, but when he only finds former neighbors, he decides to reach out to his brother living in the West, who helps him start a new life. Meanwhile, the Franciscans gather testimonies of Kolbe's martyrdom, struggling with the authorities' hostility and the Vatican's doubts about the nature of his sacrifice. When John Paul II announces Kolbe’s canonization, Jan—deeply moved—kneels before the television, finding meaning in the sacrifice he unwittingly witnessed.