A filmmaker's faith

	[Photo: Crown Video]
	Tampa-born Cristobal Krusen is sure that Final Solution, his gritty tale about apartheid with a subtle Christian message, can make it in theaters.

First, Cristobal Krusen was born in Tampa. Then he was a born-again Christian. Now he's a born-again filmmaker.

The message behind Krusen's film Final Solution echoes Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, which satisfied Krusen's quest for faith 22 years ago: Love your enemies; be a peacemaker. But Final Solution isn't the kind of reel religion that distances itself from secular audiences with sermons on the screen.

It can be hard enough to get people to spend an hour in church. Krusen, 51, decided to avoid preaching to moviegoers for two hours in a theater. Final Solution is a gritty parable wrapped inside the kind of historical drama that Hollywood typically romanticizes. The film is set in South Africa during apartheid, based on the true-life conversion of a murderous bigot into a man of tolerance and peace.

Krusen recently returned to Tampa to visit his parents and brother. He also persuaded a local theater to give his 3-year-old movie a shot. Although Final Solution earned praise at film festivals and airtime on a few PBS stations, a theatrical distributor never stepped up. The film, rated R for scenes of violent civil unrest, opens today at Channelside Cinemas in Tampa.

A one-week engagement is certain. Krusen said an extension is possible, since nearly 900 tickets were sold in advance, mostly through visits with local churches.

Religion plays a part in the redemption of Gerrit Wolfaardt (Jan Ellis). But the film reflects the filmmaker's trial-by-error lesson that pure theology won't attract viewers who might need salvation most.

"In my early filmmaking, I was pushy," said Krusen, who founded Messenger Films in 1988, making two Spanish-language films in Mexico before Final Solution. "I believed in the message so strongly that I was prepared to forgo certain artistic storytelling requirements that good films need to have.

"Final Solution is an example or evidence of a change, an evolution in my own filmmaking. I still believe completely in the message. I haven't wavered in my faith in the message over these many years.

"What I have changed, though, is my openness to a broad spectrum of life and humanity. I've learned to not be so pushy with people, or jump to conclusions. I've also learned to not insult their intelligence like I did in some of my earlier work."

Krusen realized that faith-based films such as Left Behind and The Omega Code had built-in audiences who had read the books on which they were based, plus savvy distributors. But those films affirm beliefs, rather than influencing them. Final Solution is intended to entertain first and convert second.

"At the heart of filmmaking is the audience's anticipation of what's going to happen next," Krusen said. "People don't get excited to know what happens next in your message. They're excited to know what happens next in your story.

"I want to be able to tell stories that contain a message at the heart of the story, but you have to convince people to look for that heart. That's the part I'm doing differently, I think."

Krusen was interested in South African civil unrest years before becoming a Christian. After his conversion, while filming in Mexico, Krusen read a Time magazine article about a white minister arrested for violating apartheid laws by ministering to black residents.

"That's putting Christian faith on the line, speaking out against injustice," Krusen said. "It brought back all my research I'd done on South Africa, but from a whole new, Christian perspective. The Bible says we're all sinners, but there's a remedy. I knew there had to be more stories in South Africa like that."

Krusen discovered the story of Wolfaardt, an Afrikaner whose hatred for black Africans, coupled with admiration for Adolf Hitler, led to genocidal beliefs.

"He pursued (blacks), arrested them, killed them," Krusen said. "He did things that, to be honest, I couldn't put in the movie. Then he had this dramatic conversion from the hatemonger to the peacemaker, from someone who sought to kill to someone who wanted to preach the good news.

"I did take some creative license with the story to condense time and hurry the story along. One thing that is absolutely true, and very chilling when you think about it, is (Wolfaardt's) conversation (with an apartheid military official) about the Final Solution. That's what was proposed, and that's what they were ready to do. He believed in it completely."

Nearly three years after completing Final Solution, Krusen believes in his film with what he describes as "maniacal stubbornness." He's convinced that the movie's message of tolerance - with a little Christian polish - can reach a wide audience.

"It's tough," he admitted. "It's difficult. We're just so limited by time and resources, or lack thereof.

"I would like to see Tampa be the beginning of a national release. If we do well in Tampa, that's something to take to a distributor and say, "Look, this is what we can do.' I think we can build some momentum."

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