People enter the church, sit down on a pew and pray to Christ: their father, friend, saviour, and silent and loving listener. They are supported by prayers which smoothly transfer into confession. Remarkable Austrian director Ulrich Seidl followed six believers into the intimacy of the church and shot individual portraits of lonely people who place every hope in religion. The director put these six condensed life stories into a highly purist form that places decisive stress on the word, imbued with deep inner pain. With the necessary agreement of those portrayed, Seidl chose to completely uncover hidden thoughts (till then intended only for Christ) conditioned by their varied emotions. His very daring and seemingly controversial conception astonishes for the degree of authenticity capturing the individual creeds. The film, however, demands an attitude from the viewer stripped of prejudice and conventional ideas of religious practices.
(Viennale)