Film fest doc shows Trappist monks’ faith

In the fifth installment of Duke’s 2011 French Film Festival, the Center for French and Francophone Studies will be hosting a screening of Of Gods and Men, a 2010 French-language film directed by Xavier Beauvois. Winner of the 2010 Grand Prix prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the movie has enjoyed commercial and critical success in its domestic market as well as abroad, despite its limited release outside of French theaters.

The film follows the lives of eight Trappist monks who have settled in a near-barren village in the Algerian mountains. The monks have managed to peacefully coexist with their Muslim neighbors for years, providing medical assistance to the villagers and earning their confidence. As the villagers grow dependent on the peaceful monks, the lives of both groups are suddenly disrupted by Islamic fundamentalists and the Algerian military, who threaten to violently expel the monks if they do not leave peacefully. Faced with the choice of abandoning the community, which has become reliant on their aid, or risking their lives with the looming threat of violent upheaval, the monks must decide whether to stay or leave.

Based on a true story of the kidnapping and murder of seven Trappist monks in Algeria in 1996, Of Gods and Men explores the tension in Algeria during the time of post-independence. Miriam Cooke, a professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies who will be leading the post-screening discussion, believes that the film accurately addresses the multitude of issues that emerged from the violent killings.

“The film is actually based on a book about what happened called The Monks of Tibhirine and the subtitle to the book is ‘Faith, Love, and Terror in Algeria,’” Cooke said. “The film does a fantastic job of bringing these elements together.”

The movie also serves as a platform to discuss the political unrest that has plagued Algeria throughout its history on a smaller scale. “I think it’s important to provide a place where we Americans in a post-9/11 world can begin to see a background to some of the problems in the Arab world,” she said.

Of Gods and Men has been widely praised for being subtly powerful in its depiction of the unwavering faith of the monks in the face of peril.

“What the film does is really allow us into the lives of these Trappist monks, whom otherwise we would never get access to,” Cooke said. “We see them in moments of enormous tenderness and fear, and an outpouring of love to the Algerian villagers.”