He married Sabina Oster on October 26, 1936. Wurmbrand subsequently renounced his political ideals. Pursued by Siguranţa Statului (the secret police), he was arrested and held in Doftana prison. He lived with his family in Istanbul for a short while his father died when he was 9, and the Wurmbrands returned to Romania when he was 15.Īs an adolescent, he became attracted to communism, and, after attending a series of illegal meetings of the Communist Party of Romania (PCdR), he was sent to study Marxism in Moscow, but returned clandestinely the following year. The film is narrated in English, and the scenes in Romanian and Russian have English subtitles (for the most part).Richard Wurmbrand, the youngest of four boys, was born in 1909 in Bucharest in a Jewish family.

This riles up the leaders, as apparently that is something controversial to say in front of a gaggle of so-called Christians. Wurmbrand walks to the podium uninvited and states that all must follow Jesus, first and foremost. There is one scene in particular where Wurmbrand stands before the government, which includes religious leaders spouting the broken theology of the new Communist regime. The overall message is so important for (especially) younger people to know: God before country, God before family, God before your life. I would say this film is PG-13, mostly for a few scenes of violence. Most of the torture takes place in a prison, but there are a couple of scenes shown in a labor camp, too. There is one scene in particular between a father and son in prison where I wanted to look away. I was left wanting to know more about Wurmbrand’s full story.įor parents wanting their young children or teens to see this movie, the film includes just a few scenes of the torture that was endured by Wurmbrand and others, but these scenes are very hard to watch. The film could easily have run three hours, because the material is there. We see very little of the downfall of Ceausescu. Although we see scenes of how life was for Christians (and most Romanians in general) during the Ceauscescu regime, we do not see how Wurmbrand and his family (his wife and young son) escaped the country. There are many things that could have been added on to fully flesh out Wurmbrand’s amazing story and give the audience a greater understanding of the events that occurred. There is an additional modern worship scene at the end that tacks on a few minutes, but it seemed greatly out of place to me. I specifically remember looking at my phone after I realized that the film was winding down and being surprised that I had only been in the theater for about an hour. However, according to my calculation, the actual running time is just over an hour. The film is beautifully shot, well-acted, and both heartbreaking and moving.

Wurmbrand tortured for christ