OF GODS AND MEN

Monday, May 30

Director: Xavier Beauvois
Cast: Michael Lambert Wilson, Michael Lonsdale, Olivier Rabourdin, Philippe Laudenbach, Jacques Herlin, Loic Pichon, Xavier Maly
Run Time: 120 minutes
Country: France
Year: 2010
Language: French, Arabic with English subtitles
Rating: PG (Violence, Coarse language)

Based on the true story of the kidnapping and murder of seven French monks in Algeria in 1996, Xavier Beauvois's Of God and Men is a revelation. Premiering at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, this intelligent drama ruminates on fundamentalism and the relationship between Christianity and Islam, but is also a masterly piece of cinema. Beauvois depicts the lives of a group of eight brothers who live in a Cistercian monastery in the wild, parched, sun-drenched landscape of Algeria. The monks live out an unchanging daily ritual of farming and praying, marked by communal meals and chants. Theirs is a spiritual existence where they live and work in harmony with the locals, providing medical care while also taking part in local Muslim customs. But outside the doors of their monastery, other more sinister forces are at work.

When a group of Croatian workers are murdered, the local mayor urges the brothers to close their doors and move away. This forces a crisis of conscience among the eight men, and when a fundamentalist militia group turns up one day, the choices they must make become very real and immediate. It soon becomes apparent to some of the monks that their very lives may well be in danger. How they resolve this crisis provides Beauvois with the heart of his material. This film is not a simple story of theological conflict between Christian and Islamic ideas; it is more interested in the division between fundamentalists and humanists, and what this means. Beautifully acted, scripted and photographed, Beauvois's film has a spiritual majesty to it that is a joy to behold.

"Gorgeous images and sublime acting, help make Of Gods and Men one of the films of the year."
Paul Ennis, NOW Magazine

Reviews: www.rottentomatoes.com

Official Site: www.sonyclassics.com

Spring 2011 Film Schedule April 4 - Barney's Version April 18 - The Illusionist May 2 - Jane Eyre May 16 - West is West May 30 - Of Gods and Men June 13 - In a Better World