From the controversial incident (act of terrorism or blunder by the Algerian army, with the investigation still ongoing), the filmmaker retains only the inexorable outcome. There were eight French monks living in the Algerian mountains of the Atlas, peacefully coexisting with the local inhabitants, who were, of course, Muslim.
In the distance, the terror of the Islamic guerrilla rumbled… which eventually intruded upon the life of the monastery.
The film primarily describes a life of devotion that favors silence and contemplation, communion through singing, working the land, and helping the less fortunate. The narrative is neither Manichean nor proselytizes the moral heroism of a community of men who, to the very end and at the cost of their own lives, defended their ideal of love for humanity.
Xavier Beauvois did not want to recount the conflict, much less provide the key to this tragedy that remains poorly understood.
He observed a community of men of faith living, powerless witnesses to the bloody environment but deeply committed to their obligations to the civilian population.
We share their daily life, precise as clockwork, encompassing doubts and life rituals where a very human fear insinuates itself over time, leading to a situation that degenerates irreversibly.
With admirable accuracy of tone, this film, performed by magnificently inspired actors (impeccable Lambert Wilson and Michael Lonsdale), expresses through their characters the doubts, weaknesses, and jolts, but particularly fear as a lucid preparation for martyrdom…
Grand Prix of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival, the film ‘Of Gods and Men’ shows that cinema can still achieve small miracles: making a simple story with ineffable resonances captivating.
Like the final images of the film, showing the column of monks and their captors walking towards the place of their ordeal and physically disappearing into the white fog. Much like the successive vision of the monks’ grave crosses on the hillside where their monastery stood, reminding us, the living, of their posthumous presence. What could be more symbolic to move us?
A film that will remain in our memories for a long time.
