Of Gods and Men

    I recently finished watching Xavier Beauvois' cinematic masterpiece "Of Gods and Men", a movie chronicling the story of a group of French Trappist monks in Algeria during the bloody civil war of the the mid nineties. The movie examines their devotion to the people and their vows, as their doom slowly approaches them. Their is comparatively little dialogue, a lot of scenes being composed of the brothers quietly praying or contemplating in peace. In one of the last scenes of the movie, the nine brothers share wine while listening to the music of Swan lake. Each monk is given an upclose shot, showing their joy at this moment to their brothers, and their fear and sadness about what is yet to come. In the middle of the night, seven of them are kidnapped while two brothers manage to evade the terrorists' search.
    In the end, the seven are marched into the mountains, and executed and are promptly decapitated, with their heads being delivered to the French Intelligence service (A part obviously not shown in the movie). The last spoken lines of the movie are a letter by the monastery's leader, Dom Christian, to his friends/family/superiors in France, saying how he is not afraid of what lies ahead, and is proud of how he's lived his life. He lived as Our Lord did, as brother to all-always serving, helping and guiding-and when worldly death claimed Him, he went proud and unafraid. The scene following this is the brothers being marched by the Islamic Armed Group into the Atlas Mountains to a certain but unsaid fate. Each brother walks each step to his own demise, fearful yet faithful, never looking back, never degrading himself by begging for mercy.
    But despite the unfortunate end of the brothers, the message to be taken from this movies is hopeful one. The Muslim people, however different they may seem, are our brothers as God's children, as they are our brothers in faith. No matter how the media would like to paint them all as savages like the minority who terrorize so many, we must always remember to love them and not allow prejudices or the mechanizations of this world's masters turn us on our neighbours.