Vision (2009) — Germany

           This bio-pic isn't a great film, but it chonicles the life of a great person, Hildegard of Bingen, the youngest of ten children born into an aristocratic family near Mainz.  In an age when life expectancy was somewhere around forty, Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) lived a life that was remarkably long and incredibly productive. At age fourteen she entered the St. Disibod Abbey at Disibodenberg. Until her death almost seventy years later, she devoted herself to the life of a Benedictine nun. One scholar described Hildegard as an "Über-multitasking Frau" and authentic "polymath." The description fits. The Benedictine abbess founded two convents, conducted four preaching tours, penned at least 400 letters to kings and peasants alike, wrote music and a morality play, supervised illuminated manuscripts, cared for her fellow sisters, and wrote three major theological tomes based upon her famous visions that started when she was a young child. All this despite her pronounced feelings of self-doubt, the lack of formal schooling, chronic illnesses that probably included depression and migraine headaches, and the subservient roles assigned to women by a male-dominated church and culture. I watched this film on Netflix streaming. In German with English subtitles.