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  • Writer's pictureThomas Bonifield

True Christianity on Display in "Sabina: Tortured for Christ, the Nazi Years"

This World War II era biopic profiles a Believer who demonstrates incredible faith, love and forgiveness in the face of unimaginable brutality.

Raluca Botez (far left) and Emil Mandanac appear in a scene from the movie, Sabina: Tortured for Christ, the Nazi Years.
Raluca Botez (far left) and Emil Mandanac appear in a scene from the movie. Image: The Voice of the Martyrs/Lifeway Films.

Jesus' Parable of the Sower, featured in each of the Synoptic Gospels, makes clear that in times of trouble, there are those who will fall away. Sabina: Tortured for Christ, the Nazi Years tells the true story of a woman who not only did not fall away from the faith during persecution, but actually reached out in Christian love to the tormentors.


It focuses on the life of a Jewish Christian woman named Sabina Wurmbrand from Romania. Despite the fact that Nazi's had killed her family, she chose to remain in her homeland during the war and boldly demonstrate the love of Christ to her enemies.


A digital poster for the movie, Sabina: Tortured for Christ, the Nazi Years.
A digital poster for the movie. Image: The Voice of the Martyrs/Lifeway Films.

She and her priest husband, Richard Wurmbrand, survived the war and continued to stand for the faith in the Communist era that followed, despite paying a heavy price: he endured 14 years of incarceration and she three. They never wavered, however, living to see the collapse of Romania's Communist regime and continuing to share the Gospel until the end of their lives; Sabina Wurmbrand died in 2000 and Richard in 2001.


Filmed in Romania, the picture features local actors, including Raluca Botez and Emil Mandanac in the lead roles, but the dialogue is mostly in English. As you will see in the trailer below, the locations, props, costumes and cinematography all bring a sense of authenticity to this period piece, which is a follow-up to the 2018 film Tortured for Christ, which tells Richard Wurmbrand's story.


Produced by The Voice of the Martyrs, an organization the Wurmbrands founded and one that helps persecuted Christians, Sabina: Tortured for Christ, the Nazi Years is to be a limited engagement put on by Fathom Events. The movie will play in theaters on November 8th, 9th and 10th and you can find out where via this link to Fathom Events' website.



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