In April, the makers of "The Saratov Approach" will release a second film featuring missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in what director Garrett Batty calls another "religious thriller."

The film, titled "Freetown," is based on a true story of several Liberian missionaries who were caught in the middle of a civil war while serving in their native country in 1990.

Batty came upon the story while searching through LDS Church archives, discovering microfilm that contained interviews with the missionaries.

The story intrigued Batty, and he pursued the idea of creating the film.

"I had the opportunity to talk to several of the missionaries who went through this experience, and as they talked to me, they said, ‘No, it can’t be done. You can’t put in film what we went through,’ " Batty told the Deseret News. "I wanted to find out why, what was the line of thinking? And after talking with them, it was because of the range of emotions they went through in a 36-hour period, everything from fear of death to absolute, 100-percent secure knowledge of the hand of God in their lives."

After he talked with the men about how their experiences could be portrayed on the screen, Batty said they were happy to share their story.

Batty and his crew flew to West Africa and spent six weeks there casting and filming the movie. With the exception of the man who played the mission president, every actor in the movie is from Africa, and several native Africans were also involved behind the camera, working on parts of production.

"It was neat," Batty said. "We did auditions down there in Africa, and we had over 100 people come audition for this film, and these are African actors that are stars down there, so it was really neat to work with the talent that was there."

After Batty narrowed down the cast, he learned that for the three LDS missionary companionships featured in the film, his team had unknowingly cast one LDS Church member for each companionship. Other cast members related to the film because they had personal experiences with the civil war.

"I felt like our cast could both portray accurately the spiritual side of things and the war side of things," Batty said.

Just as Batty created "The Saratov Approach" to appeal to a broad audience, he hopes "Freetown" will appeal to those outside of the Mormon audience.

"I think 'Freetown' takes hopefully what the audiences felt with 'Saratov' and amplifies that significantly," Batty said. "I certainly hope audiences will be inspired when they see the film. ... Honestly, I think in some of our moments where we fear most, that’s an opportunity where we can perhaps also learn the most and be inspired the most."

"Freetown" will be released in theaters April 8.

Email: spetersen@deseretnews.com | Twitter: @Sarah_DNews