Film Review of Zwischen uns Gott, Directed by Rebecca Hirneise
Contemporary Church History Quarterly
Volume 31, Number 1 (Spring 2025)
Film Review of Zwischen uns Gott, Directed by Rebecca Hirneise (Ruth Beckermann Filmproduktion, 2024)
By Dirk Schuster, University of Vienna
Zwischen uns Gott (Between Us God), the title of the documentary by director Rebecca Hirneise, already gives a clear indication of what the audience can expect. Hirneise visits her family in southwestern Germany to talk to them about religion. Her grandparents, both now suffering from dementia, have raised their children to be religious in a strict Methodist tradition. Her uncles and aunts tell Hirneise—among other things—how they experienced their childhood, how they relate to God and, above all, how they deal with the fact that Hirneise and her mother have turned away from Christianity and no longer want to be Christians. Hirneise manages to bring her sister, her brother and their husbands together after years of distance and talk to them about God and themselves as a family. What the viewer gets to see and hear—Hirneise has one-on-one conversations with everyone involved—is sometimes exciting, sometimes shocking and sometimes just bizarre. One aunt mourns her lost youth, as her parents (Hirneise’s now-deranged grandparents) had completely forbidden all non-religious leisure activities such as dancing, going out, and so on. The siblings’ youth was dominated exclusively by activities within the religious community—no wonder that all of them found their spouses inside the religious community. Her husband has, in turn, founded his own charismatic community in which healing is practiced with the help of God. The viewer cannot help but note that harmony in this marriage seems to be foreign, and divorce perhaps overdue, though outward appearances seem to be more important than personal happiness. This same uncle claims with complete conviction that severed limbs have grown back in his presence simply by asking God. Unfortunately, however, he is not prepared to let the camera in on such events.
Another aunt, on the other hand, talks incessantly about the damnation that awaits Hirneise because of her turning away from God. For this aunt, there is no reality outside of faith, which is why she constantly asks God for forgiveness for Hirneise and her mother. This aunt’s husband is also strictly religious, but unlike his wife, he accepts scientific views to explain the world. For example, he sees the creation of the universe through the Big Bang as entirely possible. And he also accepts that people turn away from God, a stance that his own wife acknowledges with incomprehension. Hirneise’s mother, for her part, reports how her own mother (Hirneise’s grandmother with dementia) had demanded that her daughter remain completely abstinent until her husband—who, it should be noted, had left her—came back to her. The subject of the divorce is not discussed further, so it remains unclear why Hirneise’s father left the family. And of course, he never came back.
Unsurprisingly, the experiment of talking together does not end well; it does not lead to an understanding discourse. The viewer witnesses how accusations are made by family members against each other, such as how the secular mother blames the religious fundamentalists because she was virtually expelled from the family after her divorce and renunciation of faith. Conversely, the fundamentalists condemn Hirneise and her mother because both no longer believe in God. In between are the moderates, who somehow want to mediate, but that doesn’t work. This dispute ultimately ended the family talks.
The film is raw documentary: no scene is acted, no dialogue is prearranged. This unscripted approach makes the movie both exciting and shocking. In an increasingly secularized (Central European) world, the viewer is given an unfiltered view of how faith in God is present within Hirneise’s family and how that faith prevents a peaceful coexistence based on mutual acceptance. Hirneise does not judge, but lets the viewer form his own opinion. This cinematically realized field study documents the tenacious power of religion to determine family dynamics—God has, almost literally, come in between its members. This viewer hopes that this sober anti-blockbuster will be seen by many people, because it impressively reflects the religious conflicts of the present day: one’s own point of view is so entrenched that other opinions can no longer be accepted at all. A different view to one’s own—in this case a Christian fundamentalist view—is not tolerated at all. As a result, the family can no longer even sit at the same table and talk to each other. This fact alone is thought-provoking.
