Of Gods and Men

Year: 2010

Actors: Michael Lonsdale, Lambert Wilson, Sabrina Ouazani

Duration: 122 min

Brotherhood. Religions. Faith. Martyrdom. Love. French monks are living, working and praying in a catholic monastery in Algeria in the '90s (civil war). It starts of showing how the islamic locals and the christian priests coexist in harmony. The situation with the Algerian muslim-terrorists becomes worse. They will have to decide whether to stay or go back to France. They are forced to question themselves and their mission very profoundly. Their sense of fraternity with the locals and amongst themselves is challenged. They are very much appreciated by the local islamic population, especially the medic-priest, but very much in danger. This becomes clear after some croation volunteers of the monastery are brutally killed by the guerrilla-fighters. Threatened and unwanted by both guerrilla-forces and the government their presence becomes less and less obvious. At some point after intense confrontations with eachother, the terrorists and the locals, they all decide to stay. In the end they are all taken away, except for two who have hidden themselves well, abducted by the terrorists to swap them for their own prisoners in France. As we see them struggling in a snowblizzard in the Atlas mountains, we will not explicitly see what their final fate is...

Genre: Drama   History