‘The Other Side Of Heaven 2’ Opens Nationwide
Jul 2, 2019, 10:54 AM | Updated: 5:07 pm
An Emeritus Latter-day Saint Church leader is the focus of a second film about his experiences in the South Pacific. “The Other Side of Heaven 2” opened nationwide Friday. Elder John and Sister Jean Groberg are the couple at the heart of the story.
In the 1960s, they traveled to Tonga with their five young daughter. He accepted the assignment to serve as a mission president. He knew the language from his first mission there, Sister Groberg did not. “I knew of their love and faith and I wasn’t too frightened because I knew they would be accepting and helpful and they were.” Elder Groberg remembers the acceptance his family experienced. “We learned more from them than they learned from us in terms of love, love unfeigned.”
The first film about him, “The Other Side of Heaven,” released in 2001, told the story of a young Elder Groberg sent to Tonga for three years as a missionary.
The second film, says writer/director, Mitch Davis, is even bigger. “When Elder John H. Groberg, 19 or 20-years-old, falls overboard at sea, that’s perilous. But suddenly when your wife and daughters lives are in jeopardy on those same seas, ten years later, that’s even more perilous.” Before the release of the first film, Davis described Elder Groberg’s mission as ‘ swash-buckling!’ Both films are based on Elder Groberg’s books “ In the Eye of the Storm” and “ Fire of Faith.” He says President Thomas S. Monson encouraged him to write the books and was supportive of the films and his portrayed in the second film.
Actor Christopher Gorham played the young Elder Groberg in the first film and called it a ‘fantastic experience.’ He returned to play him as a young husband and father in the second film which he described as a ‘ great opportunity.’ “ I met Elder Groberg on the last film, I met him on this film. He sends me their family Christmas letter every year, so I’m always keeping up with the Grobergs.”
A focus of the second film is the birth of the Groberg’s sixth child, their son, John, born with medical problems. The Grobergs say a beautiful thing happened, all Tongans, no matter what faith, united in prayer. ” They felt it was their child, kind of, and they wanted God to bless him. And I think if we would just develop that more throughout the world, it would be a lot better place than it is now.”
The Tongan family connection now includes a Groberg grandson, who recently opened his mission call to serve there! Surrounded by family, who cheered, he joyfully collapsed in a heap, then sprang up and announced, ‘ I’m going to be a movie star!’
Elder and Sister Groberg witnessed it all on SKYPE. “ We didn’t fall on the floor like he did but we were as excited as he was because that was sort of a fulfillment of something that we had hoped would happen and now it’s happened.”
He is their 21st grandchild and the first to serve in Tonga since they did. The extended Groberg family has now served in 39 nations.
The director hopes this film will have the same success as the first one. Mitch Davis smiles when he talks about pirated copies in China. ” A million people saw that movie in theatres and as a result of that, 20 years later, it’s still out there. It’s still wandering the world doing good. That, for me, is the most important thing.”
The Grobergs believe the message of this film again transcends one faith. Sister Jean Groberg says no matter the nation or culture or faith, ” We all have so much in common, being sons and daughters of God.” “ The Other Side of Heaven 2” carries the message of friendship and love between people who live on opposite sides of the world.
