Screen/Society--2011 French Film Series--"Of Gods and Men" ("Des hommes et des dieux")
Film Screening:
Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des dieux) (Xavier Beauvois, 2010, 122 min, France, in French with English subtitles, Color, 35mm)
-- Post-screening discussion with Prof. miriam cooke!
A sublime tale of faith and doubt based on a real incident, Of Gods and Men chronicles the story of eight French Trappist monks living in harmony with their Muslim brothers in an impoverished village in the mountains of Algeria. When faced with threats of violence from fundamentalist terrorists and the military, the monks must decide whether to seek safety or risk their lives and stay with the local villagers who have come to trust them and rely on their aid. (The film is loosely based on the life of the Cistercian monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, from 1993 until their kidnapping in 1996.)
Cost: Free and Open to the Public
Sponsors: The Center for French and Francophone Studies, the Department of Romance Studies, the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), the Duke University Center for International Studies, and the Program the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI).