St. Joseph on Screen: A Film That Dares to Affirm Life in a Culture of Death

EWTN News reports on a new film, “Saint Joseph: Guardian of the Family,” which tells the story of a married couple facing a serious marital crisis. The husband, a journalist, is assigned to investigate testimonies of people who claim to have experienced the intercession of St. Joseph. Through this investigation, he is personally impacted by the saint and is inspired to become the guardian of his own family, striving to fix the struggles they face. The film, made by the Polish production studio Rafael Film through crowdfunding, will be released in theaters across the United States on April 23. Director Dariusz Regucki shared that the film was inspired by Father Jacek Płota, custodian of the National Shrine of St. Joseph in Kalisz, Poland. Regucki described St. Joseph as a “silent yet obedient man” who “simply does his work” and stated that the saint inspires him as a father and husband, confronting him with “the truth” and showing him “what true love really is.” The director hopes viewers will leave the cinema “moved and full of hope,” holding the hand of their spouse, and that they will “look upward, stop dwelling on their sadness and suffering, and begin to affirm life.” While the film’s intentions appear superficially pious, a rigorous examination through the lens of integral Catholic theology reveals a troubling reliance on emotionalism, a near-total silence on the indispensable sacramental and doctrinal framework of marriage, and a naturalistic anthropology that substitutes psychological comfort for the supernatural life of grace — all hallmarks of the post-conciliar spiritual malaise.