Terrence Malick‘s latest film is Radegund, a German-language drama about Austrian conscientious objector Franz Jagerstatter (August Diehl). Pic shot in Europe during the mid-to-late summer of ’16. During the 2017 Berlinale it was forecasted by Variety to open in late ’17. (Hah!) When that didn’t happen forecasters began predicting some kind of 2018 debut, if not theatrically then at least at the elite September film festivals (Venice, Telluride, Toronto).

HE has asked around, and the betting is that Radegund will continue to hide its face until the February 2019 Berlinale, if that. Malick has always taken his sweet-ass time in post. He takes around two years per film and sometimes longer — Tree of Life, To The Wonder, Knight of Cups, Song to Song. (The latter began filming with costar Rooney Mara in 2012 and didn’t open until March of ’17.)

I actually wouldn’t be surprised if Radegund turns up closer to next year’s Cannes Film Festival or even, don’t laugh, during Venice/Telluride/Toronto of ’19. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t appear until 2020.

There’s no reliable timetable when it comes to Mr. Wackadoodle. He likes to shuffle and re-shuffle and think things through, and then re-shuffle and re-shuffle and then toss the lettuce leaves into the air as he twirls three times while chanting, adding lemon and olive oil and re-shuffling all over again, and then going outside and re-thinking it all during long walks.

Radegund costars Diehl, Valerie Pachner, Michael Nyqvist (who died in June ’17, roughly ten months after giving his performance), Jurgen Prochnow, Matthias Schoenaerts and Bruno Ganz.

Jagerstatter was an Austrian farmer who refused to take on combat duties after being conscripted into the Wehrmacht in 1943. He was immediately arrested and executed by guillotine later in the same year at the age of 36. Jagerstatter was born and is buried in the Austrian village St. Radegund, named after the sixth-century German princess and saint.

Wikipage: “Jagerstatter’s fate was not well known until 1964, when US sociologist Gordon Zahn published his biography, “In Solitary Witness.” Thomas Merton, the famed Trappist monk and peace activist, included a chapter about Jagerstätter in his book “Faith and Violence” (1968). A 1971 film treatment of his life made for Austrian television, Verweigerung (“The Refusal”), by director Axel Corti starred Kurt Weinzierl.

“In June 2007 Pope Benedict XVI issued an apostolic exhortation declaring Jagerstatter a martyr. On 26 October 2007, he was beatified in a ceremony held by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins at the New Cathedral in Linz.”

Jagerstatter’s memory has been honored because he said “no” to Nazi Germany, the evil aggressor of World War II. The U.S. wasn’t exactly covered in honor and God’s glory during its waging of the Vietnam War. Who, then, was the U.S. Jagerstatter — a guy who stood up and said “no, I got no quarrel with them Viet Congs”? I’ll tell you who it was. It was Muhammud Ali.