DER GUTE GEIST VON TIFLIS: The How and Why of a Compassion Movie
A TRUEHNFLIX STUDIOS film starring Marshall Award winners Kamila Selensky and Charles May in the leading roles. Exclusively on TRUEHNFLIX & TRUEHNFLIX+.
Can one person change the direction of a conversation—and, through that conversation, the direction of a life?
That question sits at the heart of DER GUTE GEIST VON TIFLIS. Through a story of wrongdoing, conscience and the possibility of repair, this Compassion Movie explores what happens when someone chooses to speak to the human being behind the behaviour.
For us, the film carries a deeply personal purpose: to make Compassion Language visible, accessible and practical. We want audiences to experience how a different way of speaking and listening can open possibilities where blame, fear and judgment have left people feeling trapped.
Here is what we learned.
We have learned to see Compassion Language as our strongest protection against ways of thinking and speaking that disconnect us from human nature and human needs.
When people’s feelings and needs disappear behind accusations, labels and demands, it becomes easier to overlook their humanity. In our experience, that disconnection can deepen conflict and make already difficult lives more painful.
Compassion Language offers a way back. It invites us to observe carefully, recognise feelings, understand needs and make clear requests. It helps us ask a question that changes how we listen: What is alive in you?
That is why advancing Compassion Language is the mission of our organisation. We want more people to have access to a practice that has brought greater understanding, connection and joy into our own lives.
Here is what happened to us.
When we were younger, before we knew Compassion Language, we repeatedly experienced communication shaped by pressure, judgment and impersonal authority—the Life‑Alienated Language we associate with Amtssprache.
We knew the exhaustion of feeling unheard. Eventually, we reached a point where we said: enough. We wanted to experience the fullness of life, to feel connected and to find reasons to celebrate each day.
That search led us to Compassion Language.
For Emily and me, “Christmas Every Day” expresses that aspiration: a life in which giving, gratitude and human connection become everyday experiences. Compassion Language gave us a practical way to begin creating those experiences in our conversations and relationships.
Here is why we believe this matters.
We believe lasting peace grows through the ways people meet one another, especially when they are hurt, frightened or in disagreement.
Compassion Language invites what we call unconditional giving from the heart: the willingness to contribute to another person’s life freely, with an understanding of their needs and our own.
This conviction also informs our interest in Restorative Justice and our vision for an International Court of Human Nature and the Human Needs. We want approaches to conflict that make room for accountability, repair and the humanity of everyone involved.
Our belief is that Compassion Language can help people interrupt cycles of violence. Each moment of understanding creates an opportunity to choose a different response.
Here is something most people do not understand.
You do not have to wait for eight billion people to learn Compassion Language before you begin.
You can begin yourself—in the conversation you are having today.
When you listen for the need beneath an accusation, or express your own pain without turning it into an attack, you can create an opening for the other person to respond differently. They may never have heard the words “Compassion Language,” yet they can still experience being heard and understood.
Their response remains their choice. Your opportunity is to make connection possible through the way you speak and listen.
For us, that is an empowering idea: change can begin with one willing person.
Here is how this project started.
DER GUTE GEIST VON TIFLIS grew from our desire to show Compassion Language in action.
Through the leading performances of Kamila Selensky and Charles May, the film explores how people caught in harmful circumstances can encounter a possibility for change. Its central creative challenge is to make that turning point believable: the moment someone begins to recognise another person’s humanity and reconsider what they are doing.
We wanted to show how, within a conversation lasting less than twenty minutes, understanding can begin to shift a conflict and open a path towards repair. Some problems require sustained work; a meaningful turning point can happen quickly.
Cinema allows audiences to experience that moment through a character’s hesitation, a difficult admission, an unexpected question or the decision to listen.
That is the purpose of our Compassion Movies: to make the practice understandable through stories people can feel, remember and bring into their own lives.
Here is what changed our lives.
When Emily and I discovered Compassion Language, it felt like a click. Our understanding of everyday encounters changed profoundly.
We began listening more closely to what people were feeling and needing. We became more conscious of how we expressed our own experiences, and of the choices available to us when a conversation became difficult.
Choosing Compassion Language deliberately became a turning point in our lives. Over the years, we have also witnessed moments of connection with others that continue to give this work its meaning.
That experience is the heart of DER GUTE GEIST VON TIFLIS: the possibility of returning to human nature and human needs, even after disconnection and harm.
We hope audiences leave with a question they can carry into their next conversation:
What could become possible if I chose Compassion Language now?
DER GUTE GEIST VON TIFLISBy TRUEHNFLIX STUDIOSStarring Marshall Award winners Kamila Selensky and Charles MayExclusively on TRUEHNFLIX & TRUEHNFLIX+
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