OF
GODS AND MEN (2010)
SUNDAY 1st APRIL 10.00 am
TUESDAY 3rd APRIL 8.30 pm
RUNNING TIME 120 MINS
RATED M
SYNOPSIS
Eight French Christian monks live in harmony with their Muslim
brothers in a monastery perched in the mountains of North Africa
in the 1990s. When a crew of foreign workers is massacred by
an Islamic fundamentalist group, fear sweeps though the region.
The army offers them protection, but the monks refuse. Should
they leave? Despite the growing menace in their midst, they
slowly realize that they have no choice but to stay... come
what may. This film is loosely based on the life of the Cistercian
monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, from 1993 until their kidnapping
in 1996.
Review by David Stratton
In the Atlas Mountains in North Africa in 1996, nine Trappist
monks live in a remote monastery. Led by Brother Christian
(Lambert Wilson), they are genuinely good men; they don't proselytise
their religion, but they run a medical centre, and give support
to the local people. The area is troubled by Muslim fundamentalists;
nearby, some Croatian workers have been murdered; the government
wants to place soldiers in the monastery, but the monks reject
this; then they're advised to leave altogether, but the locals
beg them to stay. On Christmas night, a group of Fundamentalists
arrive at the monastery with a wounded man.
This outstanding film from director Xavier Beauvois is inspired
by real events. Beauvois establishes the routine day-to-day life
of these dedicated men with stark simplicity so that we come
to know and like them, especially Brother Luc (Michel Lonsdale)
who runs the clinic. But while we are invited to enter into this
peaceful, cloistered world, we're very aware of the violence
outside, and a feeling of impending doom becomes palpable as
the film proceeds.
This was, for me, the best film screened at Cannes last year
[2010] - it won the Grand Prix or second prize. The other major
film of last year's festival, Bertrand Tavernier's spectacular,
intelligent swashbuckler The Princess of Montpensier, is getting
a far too limited release in Melbourne this week - it's a splendid
film that deserves much wider exposure.
Of Gods and Men is very different, a serene, contemplative work
and a sad reminder of the results of fundamentalism.
Source: www.abc.net.au/atthemovies
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