''God on Trial'' is a 2008 British television play written by

Frank Cottrell-Boyce Frank Cottrell-Boyce (born 23 September 1959)"COTTRELL-BOYCE, Frank", ''Who's Who 2010'', A & C Black, 2010; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2009 ; online edn, Nov 200 Retrieved 2010-05-16. is an English people, English screenwriter, ...

, starring

Antony Sher Sir Antony Sher (14 June 1949 – 2 December 2021) was a British actor, writer and theatre director of South African origin. A two-time Laurence Olivier Award winner and a four-time nominee, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982 and ...

, Rupert Graves and Jack Shepherd. The play takes place in

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

during World War II. The Jewish prisoners put God on trial ''in absentia'' for abandoning the Jewish people. The question is whether God has broken his covenant with the Jewish people by allowing the Germans to commit

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...

. It was produced and shown by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

on 3 September 2008. Production was supported by

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

, which screened the play as part of its ''Masterpiece'' anthology. The play is based on the

Elie Wiesel Elie Wiesel (, born Eliezer Wiesel ''Eliezer Vizel''; September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Peace Prize, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored Elie Wiesel b ...

play '' The Trial of God''. Cottrell-Boyce describes this tale as "apocryphal". Wiesel later stated that the event was true, and that he had witnessed it.According to Cottrell-Boyce, producer

Mark Redhead Mark Redhead is a British producer, director, and occasional actor. He was the producer of ''Bloody Sunday'' and an executive producer of God on Trial. He has been nominated for several awards and won a BAFTA TV Award in 2000 for '' The Murder of ...

"had been trying to turn the story into a film for almost 20 years by the time he called me in 2005 to write the screenplay."

Plot

Jewish prisoners in a barrack at Auschwitz question why God has let this happen to them, His chosen people, and decide to try God in absentia to get at the answer. This becomes an extended debate on why God permits evil. The first theory proposed, that God must allow people to choose actions that lead to horrible results because human freedom of will is such an important value—a solution many consider the true one—is rejected with contempt, and the debate continues. Finally, one of the men reviews the record of God's deeds in the Hebrew Bible, and draws the conclusion that the true answer is that God is not good. He states this so powerfully that the others accept it, and there is a moment of silence. "So what do we do?" says one. "We pray," says the proposer of the theory grimly, and they rise, face one way and begin to pray. The scene fades to the present day, with visitors to Auschwitz standing stunned in the same space; the ghostly figures of the prisoners are seen among them, praying.

Cast

Joseph Alessi Joseph Norman Alessi (born September 20, 1959) is an American classical trombonist with the New York Philharmonic. Life Joseph Norman Alessi was born in Detroit, Michigan and attended high school in San Rafael, California. His father, also nam ...

- Kapo * Josef Altin - Isaac * Ashley Artus - Ricard *

Alexi Kaye Campbell Alexi Kaye Campbell (born 1966) is a Greek-British playwright and actor. In 2009, his play '' The Pride'' was given the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. Personal life Alexi Kaye Campbell was born ...

- Doctor (presumably Josef Mengele) * Dominic Cooper - Moche * Lorcan Cranitch - Blockaltester * Stephen Dillane - Schmidt * Rupert Graves - Mordechai * François Guetary - Jacques * David de Keyser - Hugo * Agnieszka Liggett - Tour Guide * Louise Mardenborough - Emily * Eddie Marsan - Lieble *

André Oumansky André Oumansky (born 15 August 1933) is a French actor. He appeared in more than eighty films since 1958. Filmography References External links * 1933 births Living people French male film actors French male television actors ...

- Jacob *

Blake Ritson Blake Adam Ritson (born 14 January 1978) is an English actor and director. Early life Blake was born on 14, June, 1978 in London and attended the Dolphin School in Reading, Berkshire until 1993, before going to St Paul's School in West Londo ...

- Idek * Jack Shepherd - Kuhn *

- Akiba * Stellan Skarsgård - Baumgarten *

René Zagger René Zagger (born 1 June 1973) is an English actor, known for playing PC Nick Klein in ''The Bill'' from 1999 to 2004 and as the voice of Emet-Selch in Final Fantasy XIV from the '' Stormblood'' expansion onward. He has also made several guest a ...

- Ezra * Dailly Hilaire

Score

The music for the film was especially commissioned and composed by Nick Green and

Tristin Norwell Tristin Norwell is a British music composer, producer, mixer, arranger, and musician. He recorded & mixed the Mercury Prize winning Talvin Singh, album ''O.K.,'' and has worked with Neneh Cherry, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Madonna, Embrace, Tricky and ...

Reception

Reviews were overwhelmingly positive. Sam Wollaston in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' found it "powerful and thoughtful stuff, with some fine performances by some fine actors – Antony Sher, Rupert Graves, Dominic Cooper."Last night's TV
by Sam Wollaston, ''

'', 4 September 2008 Remarking that Cottrell-Boyce wrote the piece from a position of personal faith, James Walton in ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'' observed, "Yet, as each of the characters put forward a different view on the question of God and suffering, it was clear that he was willing to interrogate his beliefs with real ferocity." This was a complex piece, and "as the fierceness of the intellectual and emotional grip tightened, it was impossible to imagine any halfway-thoughtful viewers, of whatever prior convictions, not having a disturbing sense of their own ideas coming under sustained and convincing attack."Last night on television: Lost in Austen (ITV1)
by James Walton, ''

'', 4 September 2008 In a long review for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', Tim Teeman had great praise for the cast: "The performances were so strong it felt a privilege to watch the actors, among them Antony Sher, Rupert Graves, Stephen Dillane and Jack Shepherd." He also praises director Andy de Emmony's "brilliant, arresting sleight of hand... ixingthe prisoners, naked and shorn, together with the present-day touring party in the gas chamber."God on Trial; Lost in Austen
by Tim Teeman, ''

'', 4 September 2008 For ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', Thomas Sutcliffe remarked on Sher's role as the play's smouldering fuse: "Every now and then you saw Antony Sher, davening silently in a corner of the barracks. Like a loaded gun in a Chekhov play, you knew he was going to go off eventually and that it would be significant when he did, and indeed it was his explosive inventory of God's biblically attested crimes that finally swung the judges in favour of a guilty verdict."Last Night's TV: Lost In Austen, ITV1 God On Trial, BBC2
Thomas Sutcliffe, ''

'', 4 September 2008 Opposite fierce competition from the much-trailed, eagerly awaited debut episode of

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

's four-part-time travel fantasy series, '' Lost in Austen'', and an episode of the BBC's celebrity genealogy show, '' Who Do You Think You Are?'', featuring Esther Rantzen, ''God on Trial'' attracted 700,000 viewers on BBC2, a 3% share of the audience, according to overnight returns."TV ratings: Family history show defeats Austen drama"
''

'', 4 September 2008 When the show was shown in the United States on PBS, the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' said "They are big topics addressed with a striking lack of sentimentality, quite a feat considering the setting."Review: 'God on Trial' on PBS stations
7 November 2008, ''

'', Mary McNamara The ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'' echoed the British reviewers in praising the "brilliant script" the "subtle wonders at every turn" in DeEmmony's direction, and remarked that "It seems trivial even to try to single out one superb performance from virtually every other superb performance."TV review: Auschwitz prisoners put God on trial
''

'', 8 November 2008

Distribution

''God on Trial'' aired on

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

on Wednesday 3 September 2008 and on

in the ''

Masterpiece Contemporary ''Masterpiece'' (formerly known as ''Masterpiece Theatre'') is a drama anthology television series produced by WGBH-TV, WGBH Boston. It premiered on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) on January 10, 1971. The series has presented numerous acclaim ...

'' strand on 9 November 2008.God on Trial
pbs.org

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 1173494, God on Trial 2008 television films 2008 films Holocaust films Fictional lawsuits against God Films about lawsuits against God British drama films Films with screenplays by Frank Cottrell-Boyce 2008 drama films Television Academy Honors winners 2000s English-language films 2000s British films