Which 1928 silent film by Carl Theodor Dreyer depicts the trial of Joan of Arc?

The 1928 silent film by Carl Theodor Dreyer that depicts the trial of Joan of Arc is The Passion of Joan of Arc.

The French film dramatizes Joan’s final captivity, interrogations, recantation, and execution in 1431. Renée Jeanne Falconetti plays Joan in her only major film role, giving a performance widely regarded as one of cinema’s finest.

Dreyer based the screenplay on the surviving trial records. He condensed 29 interrogations conducted over 18 months into the film’s concentrated courtroom narrative. Its stark close-ups, bare faces, and severe concrete sets make the judges and Joan feel psychologically exposed.

The film is sometimes confused with other Joan of Arc productions, including Saint Joan and Joan the Woman, but neither is Dreyer’s 1928 trial film. The Passion of Joan of Arc was initially cut by censors, and a copy of Dreyer’s preferred version was rediscovered in Norway in 1981.