Showing @ Filmhouse 3- 9 Dec & 17-30 Dec

Xavier Beauvois/ France/ 2010/ 122 min

Peaceful, contemplative and entwined with the village that surrounds them the lives of the Cistercian monks at the heart of this film are fixed and centred around prayer, tending to the sick, growing vegetables and making honey to sell in the local market. For the villagers, the monastery is the heart of their community providing support and comfort to all. However the setting for Of Gods and Men isn’t some pastoral idyll in the 12th century but Algeria in the 1990s where growing Islamic fundamentalism and an oppressive and corrupt regime are at war and inevitably the village and the monastery are swept up in it.

Based on a true story and with a clear pro-religious stance Xavier Beauvois’ film could have easily descended into a study of martyrdom or become an advert for the comforts of faith, instead he deals head on with the humanity of his characters, their flaws, fears and doubts and it’s at this all too human level the the film has its greatest success.

This is not a film that shies away from an answer to the oft asked “Where is God?” question. God is not in the text either of Christianity or Islam, for Beauvois and his characters God lives in the acts of humanity; kindness, tolerance and forbearance are all manifestations of His presence. This is the truth, for want of a better word, that the monks cling to as the devastation and cruelty invade their lives and they realise that their presence in the village might be the inhabitants only hope.

Much like the life of a monk this film takes a degree of commitment to get the most out of it but in the end this thought-provoking tale deserves to be seen.