Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Of Gods and Men
“Of Gods and Men” is a drama that follows the story of eight French monks living in the mountains of North Africa in the 1990's. The acclaimed French director Xavier Beauvois delivers another stirring film based on the real events of a clash of religions.
Algeria is being swept up in a civil war and the monks are forced to make a decision, flee Algeria and live, or stay with their monastery where they will most certainly die.
The film received high praise from critics at this years Cannes Film Festival and has since been the source of discussion in many religious circles.
“Of Gods and Men” begins by showing how the monks lived alongside the local Muslim community in peace. However, the camaraderie quickly vanishes as Muslim fundamentalists begin to make their presence felt.
In Cannes the picture won the Ecumenical Jury Prize, awarded to films for expressing faith and humanism in their films. Since then Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the rights to the film for production in the US, New Zealand, and Australia.
It will also be France's Oscar submission this year for the foreign language category. The finalists will be announced in January and the ceremony will be held the following month.
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6 comments:
This film has received great praise in France. Friends who have seen it have told me it is a deeply moving film. I had hoped to see it last week on a planned visit but owing to illness was unable to go.
I wondered what the English title would be and strangely they have reversed the French title. Having looked it up now I see that it will not be released here until December 3rd. Viewers will recognise Anglo-French Michel Lonsdale in the film who played a star part in The Day of the Jackal.
The website of the newspaper 'La Croix' has a number of articles and videos relating to the film.
Parents saw it at London Film Festival. Said it is excellent.
An Algerian friend insists that it was not Islamists who murdered the monks but the Algerian government in an attempt to discredit the Islamic party.
Crux
I think your friend is indulging in wishful and conspiratorial thinking. My godmother's brother was one of the monks killed and all the evidence, including the threats and warnings for the two years before the martyrdom, point quite clearly to it having been the work of the Islamists.
The real motivation for the assassination of the Monks of Tibhrine has fuelled much debate and the inevitable conspiracy theories.
Because of this I understand that the film ends before their deaths and concentrates on their lives before their kidnap.
Did the armed Islamist group really kill them? Or was it the Algerian Secret Service who made their deaths look like the responsability of armed Islamist groups by decapitating them?
Following the evidence of a highranking French officer - a General I believe - he testified that their deaths were the result of a dreadful mistake during a rescue attempt by the Algerian army. As their bodies had been riddled with bullets this was hidden when only their heads were returned for burial. I don't think their bodies have ever been found.
This film is on at the Duke of Yorks in Brighton from tomorrow Sunday 26th December to Thursday 30th December
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