'Ninth Day' director says chance to helm film 'like a call' from God

Published: 2005-05-19

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Volker Schlondorff, who directed the World War II drama "The Ninth Day," said that being offered the opportunity to direct the film was "like a call" from God similar to his understanding in high school he was meant to make movies. "It's payback time," Schlondorff said with a chuckle. "The Ninth Day" is the fictional tale of a Luxembourg priest who is released from the "Priest Block" at the Nazis' Dachau concentration camp in Germany in 1942; thousands of clergymen were imprisoned in barracks that made up the block. But the priest learns his release is just a nine-day furlough to return home so he can try to convince his bishop to drop his resistance to the Nazi occupation.

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