‘Of Gods and Men’ movie review: Truly spiritual

BY MIRIAM RINN

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

MOVIE REVIEW

Dependent on image, and therefore the surface or “outside” of experience, film seems particularly unsuited to exploring the realms of artistic creativity and religion, interior aspects of human life. It can get pretty boring looking at a writer thinking of the perfect word or a believer meditating on the glory of creation. That makes “Of Gods and Men,“ the French film about a group of monks caught in the middle of the 1990’s civil war in Algeria, even more extraordinary. Not only does it offer a clear and convincing view of a complicated political situation, but it introduces the viewer to an alien lifestyle — that of Cistercian monks — in a credible and respectful way. Winner of the Grand Prix at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and France’s selection for the foreign-language Oscar, “Of Gods and Men” is that rare thing, a truly spiritual film.

Much of the credit has to go to the sound design. Hymns and psalms form the soundtrack for “Of Gods and Men,” as the monks meet several times a day for daily offices. The simplicity and purity of their communal song and director of photography Caroline Champetier’s calm camera, which makes the monks’ faces look as if they belonged in Renaissance Italian paintings, create a palpable atmosphere of devotion. The monks are devoted to the Muslim villagers they live amongst and treat at their clinic. They are also devoted to each other’s spiritual health, as well as to their lives as monks in the Benedictine order with its focus on hospitality and manual labor. But writer-director Xavier Beauvois hasn’t created characters of unreal saintliness; each brother has a distinct temperament, with his own peculiarities, fears and strengths. The actors forge believable personalities for these men, so they are always human beings, regardless of the otherworldly lives they lead.

The 10-year Algerian civil war involved Islamist rebels, who had won a majority in an election, and the government at the time. “Of Gods and Men” is based on the 1996 kidnapping and eventual murder of seven French monks of Tibhirine. An Islamist group claimed responsibility, and the incident understandably created a furor in France. In 2003, the family of one of the monks asked for a judicial review of the event, and some questions arose about who actually killed the monks — the kidnappers, or the Algerian army by accident. "Of Gods and Men" isn't concerned with this distinction, however; the film focuses on the monks and on their reactions to the situation they find themselves in.

The monastery in the film is led by Brother Christian (Lambert Wilson), an intellectual who is studying the intersection of Christianity and the Koran. He is sensitive to the religious views of the villagers, made evident when the monks attend a ritual circumcision of a young village boy. When a group of Serbian contractors is murdered nearby, the question of how to respond to the simmering civil unrest becomes more urgent and the tension increases. Should the monks leave, as the government is urging them to do, or should they stay? Each man must struggle with his decision, but the final choice has to be made as a group. As one of the monks says plaintively, “Dying for my faith shouldn’t keep me up at night.“

In the meantime, they continue with their farming, beekeeping, and many hours of prayer. The ideal serenity of their monastic life is interrupted by the roar of a bulldozer, and Beauvois uses other symbols to represent change, such as flocks of birds suddenly flying up into the sky, and a shepherd guiding his flock just after Christian notes that a good shepherd doesn’t abandon his sheep to the wolves.

The only performed music in the film, besides the monks’ chanting, is Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake,” which the men listen to at a festive meal for a returning brother. The beauty of the music overwhelms them and several begin to weep at what looks very much like a last supper. The film is made up of such images, and quietly builds a dense tapestry of a group of deeply religious men who find themselves in a time and place where they may become martyrs for their God.