This inspiring film which won the coveted Palm dOr at the Cannes film festival, was recently shown nationwide, and the DVD is due to be released on April 11th. A fitting moment, as we approach Holy Week, to enter into the story of the French monks in Algeria who lost their lives for the sake of the Muslim villagers amongst whom they lived and worked.
Several RSCJ saw the film and there follows comments and reactions to the film.
I was profoundly moved by this film. The French monks living in the Atlas mountains as Christians, had become very close to the Muslim villagers amongst whom they lived. One of them, a doctor who was already elderly, went every day to tend the sick.
When they knew they were in mortal danger, and the Superior made a decision on their behalf refusing to leave the place, they took him to task and said they had not elected him to make decisions for them, they should have been consulted. Surely this is a good message for the likes of the dictators in Algeria and the Middle East. Later in the film all the monks decide to stay, as they said they had given their lives to God many years ago when they were professed and they were not going back on that. It was very profound and very moving. Not many of us are asked to make this ultimate sacrifice but we can all learn from their example. Vivien Bowman.
I was deeply moved and stunned into silence after seeing the film, "Of Gods and Men". The heroism, the dignity, the total dedication to God, and the poor people of Tibhirine, of these Cistercian monks was challenging. The glimpses of fear, of anxiety, of foreboding that preceded their abduction in the dead of night underlined their heroism in choosing to stay there.
In the end their total giveness to God and their mission enabled them to make the supreme sacrifice of their lives with great dignity. Witnessing all this proved to be for me a very powerful experience. Bernadette Sacco
Last week I went to see the wonderful film - Of God's and Men. For me it was challenging, thought-provoking and said a lot about true community discernment and the reasons why we stay where we are in ministry. Margaret Wilson
I saw the film "Of Gods and Men" yesterday and was moved profoundly by it. At its heart is the reminder that to be a Religious means giving the whole of ourselves and our lives to God, even as it means, as in this case, a violent death. Scary, but it is what Jesus lived! The very last few minutes are brilliant! Marion Charley
It's the most inspiring and challenging film I've ever seen (seen it three times!). For me it focused on the essence of religious life - wholly given to God and to the people. The prayer together and alone woven through everything, the simplicity of their community life, the being with and part of the people of all faiths and the truth of relationships between such different personalities. It was as relevant to us as active contemplatives as it is to their more monastic lifestyle. Mary Hinde
I found the film inspirational in many ways: the use of the daily office as a way of allowing the word of God to comment on the days events; so many instances that carried Eucharistic symbolism; the living out of love your enemy, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who persecute you. A very real portrayal of the genuine struggles of community life and leadership in community. Steph Romaine
There were many things about this film that moved me, and many that raised questions that I have continued to ponder. At one level I was moved by, and admired, the sensitive, empathic way it was filmed. The camera was not objective in the sense of providing us with an unblinking warts-and-all reality news record of events. The shots were crafted, the lighting palette (whites, greens, blues and browns) composed, the chants carefully chosen to interweave with the particular situation of the community at a particular point. But there is no such thing as pure objectivity, and the choices made in the direction and production spoke of a film that wanted to free the spirit of the community, its spirituality and life, to speak to an audience who would find such a life puzzling and alien. The film asked questions about the nature of commitment, integrity and political collusion. By choosing to stay in spite of death threats, was the community demonstrating fidelity to the logic of commitment to a vocation that sought to be an expression of the presence of God-with-us in respectful and searching communion with the Muslim community it lived alongside? Or was it a choice that was motivated by a naïve and self- indulgent romanticism, putting the lives of villagers at risk, accepting the protection (possibly), of one of the terrorist gangs, and compromising the local government authorities. Or was it both? The monks engaged in a process of discernment as portrayed in the film, this process did not seem all that searching to me. An initial common sense resistance to being martyrs gave way unanimously to the choice to stay and in most cases this was expressed in terms of my life elsewhere is finished. The community talked to itself, and to the villagers. The villagers wanted them to stay. However of course in the end, the brothers were dead and could neither stay nor return when the political situation was calmer. One wonders how much the choice to stay was motivated by fear was fear of being uprooted and returning to France greater than fear of death? It would have taken a very particular courage for any one of them to make the lonely decision to resist the group dynamic and leave the community. Or perhaps by staying they were courageously accepting the negative fallout that must come in country damaged in part by the predations of European colonialism. They choose to sit within a situation of original sin where any choice will be compromised, and their hope may have been that this could bring grace to that situation. The wonder of the film is that all these questions are suggested, and they interplay, but are not answered. This is its strength.
The portrayal of community life is intriguing and inspiring. We were presented with an image of a group of men who are living simultaneously alone and together, before God. Each has his own role that contributes to the purpose of the whole group, to its life alongside and in communication with the local people. I loved the way they were filmed interacting with the villagers, counselling and being counselled by them, sharing their feasts, praying with them their habits and the garments of the Imam so similar. This is inspiring because it is reminiscent of the Al-Andalus in the 9th and 10th centuries when allegedly there is some dispute about whether this is a myth) Jews, Christians and Moslems lived creatively and peaceably together in Islamic Spain. Of course in the film the Muslim voices are somewhat muted we only hear a secular voice (the mayor) and selected voices of sympathetic villagers who benefit directly from the aid and alms of the brothers. I wonder how a Muslim film director would have told this story? It is also inspiring because, cultural and political issues apart, I find this take on monastic community life very attractive. There is a clarity of purpose, a gentleness, an overriding contemplative atmosphere that permeates the day. Sue Acheson.
