This kind of film is the reason that I go to the cinema and encourage others to do so. It's a beautiful, profound, tender, humane, wise and powerful account of the small group of French monks in a village in Algeria who were kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists in 1996.
And yet the film is not really about the kidnapping, but rather how the monks lived in the community, providing medical help, growing and selling their own food, and working alongside rather than in opposition to the local Islamic culture. It's also about what happens to the group when the threat of violence appears on the horizon. It's about spiritual belief and practice, and how they impact on their lives, and it's about the bonds of loyalty and devotion that have formed between this small group of middle aged and elderly men.
Why did I like it so much? Because it's intelligent and thoughtful, offering a portrayal of believable humans who one can admire without worshipping; because the acting is extraordinarily fine, the script is eloquent in its simplicity, the camerawork reveals the beauty of their surroundings without fetishising them, and because you find yourself really asking yourself how you would behave if you were in those circumstances. I can't speak highly enough of it, and beg you to go and see it when it comes to the cinema later this year.
