PBS’ ‘God on Trial’ looks at what it costs to keep faith amid catastrophe

“God on Trial,”Nov. 9, PBS

By John Mulderig, Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS)—The problem of theodicy—the effort to reconcile an all-powerful, benevolent God with the existence and pervasiveness of evil—is one of the most ancient issues in Western religious thought. One might say it’s the very first topic dealt with by the Bible, since it’s one of the central themes of the story of creation.

For European Jews, this apparent paradox naturally took on a searing significance as the Nazis’ monstrous Final Solution unfolded in the 1940s. Not only might they have asked how a good God could permit such barbarity but, more specifically, how the God of Israel could allow such a disaster to befall his chosen people.

Following the end of the Second World War, a story—never substantiated—began to circulate that a group of Auschwitz survivors had convened a rabbinical court to try God for breaching his covenant. “God on Trial,” director Andy DeEmmony’s stark but profoundly compelling drama based on this premise, premieres on PBS as part of the “Masterpiece Contemporary” series Sunday, Nov. 9, 9-10:30 p.m. EST (check local listings).

Herded into dirty, ramshackle barracks, newly arrived prisoners, uncertain who among them have been selected for immediate death, begin to debate the meaning of their experience. To regulate their impassioned exchange, an impromptu court of three judges is formed in accordance with Jewish tradition.

Mordechai (Rupert Graves), a secularized Jew whose lifestyle has alienated his Orthodox father and fellow prisoner Kuhn (Jack Shepherd), organizes the prosecution. Schmidt (Stephen Dillane), a rabbi and translator of the Torah, leads the defense. German law professor Baumgarten (Stellan Skarsgard), though not conversant with Scripture, offers to keep the procedure fair.

Akiba (Antony Sher), a rabbi from a small village in Poland who has memorized Scriptures, serves as the court’s required copy of the Torah. Though treated with great respect by most, he seems too traumatized to contribute.

As written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, the arguments put forward on each side are far-reaching and eloquent and the high-powered ensemble cast—including Dominic Cooper and Eddie Marsan—lends them the weight of credibly heartfelt emotion. The scriptural quotations cited to highlight God’s mysterious sovereignty take on a special resonance in such debased surroundings.

Mature Catholic viewers will find “God on Trial” an unflinching exploration of what it costs, and what it means, to keep faith amid catastrophe.

The TV Parental Guidelines rating for this program is TV-14.

John Mulderig is on the staff of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. More reviews are available online at www.usccb.org/movies.