다음 영화를 소개합니다. 아카데미상과 칸느 영화제에서 상을 받은 영화입니다.

1996년 알제리아에서 9명의 프랑스 트라피스트  수사들의 실제 삶과 죽음을 바탕으로 만든 영화입니다. 가난한 무슬림 타운에서 그들과 하나가 되어 살았던 수사들이 삶과 죽음의 기로에서 택해야 했던 선택과 사랑...

Landmark Midtown Art Cinema

931 Monroe Dr NE # C212, Atlanta, GA 30308-1798 (404) 879-0408 ‎ landmarktheatres.com

영화 상영 시간

4월 1일 (금) ~ 4월 7일(목)

오후 1:30,   4:15,    7:05,   9:45

Of Gods and men

The movie, based on the true story of French monks murdered in Algeria in 1996 despite being warned to flee before Islamist militants’ violence caught up with them, shows the monks woven into the fabric of their Muslim town, attending family celebrations and running a clinic for villagers.

When violence against foreigners erupts, the government tries to force them to leave. The prior of the monastery refuses, but the monks are definitely not of one mind: “I didn’t come here to commit collective suicide,” says one. “The Good Shepherd does not abandon his flock to the wolves,” says another. They agree to wait for a while. Meanwhile, the monks spend hours each day chanting in their small chapel, words you realize cannot but work on their souls: “Let us turn to the Man of Sorrows who beckons from the cross. Let us not forgo the blood he shed.”

I suspect the movie does an admirable job of showing how monks really live: working, praying, taking walks, observing periods of silence. A friend says his college-aged son found this portrayal of monastery life as eye-opening as the terrible choice the monks find themselves faced with.  

“You are the protection for the village,” says one of the townsfolk. When one of the monks replies, “We’re like birds on a branch—we don’t know if we’ll be leaving,” a Muslim woman looks them straight in the eye and says, “We’re the birds. You’re the branch.”

This beautiful, stirring film contains a remarkable Last Supper sequence which takes place after the monks have finished wrestling with their decision. Wordless, they laugh and weep together, much as we imagine the disciples and the Man of Sorrows might have done on that Thursday, in the face of the violence bearing down on them.