“God will save you.”
“Only if we give him a hand.”

Click on the order button below to download this Movie Discussion Guide as a Microsoft Word file. You'll receive a Bible-based guide for personal use or group discussion after the movie. No additional preparation is required.

Overview

The full title of Robert Bresson’s minimalist masterpiece is A Man Condemned to Death Has Escaped, and the story it tells is just that direct. Closely based on the autobiographical account of French Resistance fighter Andre Devigny’s imprisonment in the Gestapo’s notorious Fort Montluc prison, the film portrays in great physical detail his lonely, painstaking preparations for escape. Its subtitle is The Wind Blows Where It Wills, which points to the more elusive spiritual intentions of its devoutly Christian authors.

This study guide equips viewers to explore the film’s themes—the tension between fate and freedom, luck and providence, and the movement from despair to hope, from isolation to community, and the need for trust and faith in hopeless circumstances.

Discussion Guide

    • Movie Summary

    • Discussing the Scenes

—Fate and Freedom
(Ecclesiastes 8:7–8; Psalm 139:13–16)

—Luck, Choice, and Providence
(John 3:5–8)

—Isolation and Community
(Ecclesiastes 4:9–12)

—Trust and Faith
(Matthew 6:25–34)

Based On

A Man Escaped (New Yorker Films, 1956).

Photo © New Yorker Films

You have permission to make up to 1,000 copies for use in your local church.