Andover Film Club

Monday 7th March,  Reel Cinema, Andover   Start time: 8:00

Release: 2010 (Cert 15)

Director: Xavier Beauvois

Starring: Lambert Wilson, Michael Lonsdale and Olivier Rabourdin

The Guardian   The Independent    Time Out     Empire 
Mark Kermode (BBC Video Clip)

Following another good attendance in February, Andover Film Club’s next presentation at the Reel on Monday 7th March is the French film “Of Gods and Men” (cert 15). The movie was premiered last year at the Cannes Film Festival where it won the Grand Prix.

Set in Algeria in 1996, the story is very much one of our times. Under threat by Islamic fundamentalist terrorists, a group of Catholic monks stationed with an impoverished local community must decide whether to leave or stay. The film is a powerful study of this choice between cowardice and martyrdom, culminating in a controversial last scene described variously by critics as “sensational” and “over the top”. In any event, the film leaves a lasting impact. 

As always the presentation is open to the public as well as club members, and the show will start at 8.00pm.  

Toronto International Film Festival | Telluride Film Festival | New York Film Festival
Nominee: 2010 European Film Award for Best Film
Nominee: 2010 Carlo di Palma European Cinematographer, European Film Award
Winner: Grand Prix; Ecumenical Jury Prize - 2010Cannes Film Festival
Winner: Best Foreign Language Film, 2010 National Board of Review
Winner: FIPRESCI Award for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, 2011 Palm Springs International Film Festival 

Introduction Given On The Night, By Mark Grainger

The film has been nominated for 3 different awards as “best foreign film” and has already won the NBR award in that category in the States.

It was written & directed by :- Xavier Beauvois who also wrote & directed :- Don't Forget You're Going to Die (1995) The Young Lieutenant (2005) It stars Lambert Wilson, Michael Lonsdale and Olivier Rabourdin
The film is based on a factual incident that took place in 1996 in a troubled part of the world. A part of the world where, even as I write this preview, people are checking the relevant websites to review their travel plans for anywhere in North Africa.

In 1962 after a long and bloody struggle with what France called “terrorists” seeking independence for their country, Charles De Gaulle finally conceded and granted Algeria full independence from France.

At some time prior to the early 1990’s a small Cistercian monastery was set up Tibhirine, which is remote village in the Médéa region in the Atlas mountains. The film follows the story of what happens to the monks at that monastery as tensions rise during the 1990’s.

Certain facts prior to the events in the film are not disputed.

In January 1992 – The second round of what would have been Algeria's first democratic elections is cancelled by military, who stage a coup d'état to prevent a victory by the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS).

In June, 1992 - Mohamed Boudiaf, the Algerian president, is assassinated. He was on the verge of launching a major investigation into corruption and had already removed several highly-ranked military officials from their posts.

In October 1993 – The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) issues an ultimatum for all foreigners to leave the country. At the time the GIA were in conflict with the official government in Algeria.

In December 1993 - The monks make a non-aggression agreement with Sayah Attiya, then head of the GIA in the Médéa region. The monks agree to treat wounded fighters.

In February 1994 - Sayah Attiya is killed.

From this point on the information on what actually happened is subject to much debate and dispute.

As recently as 2007 the controversy still raged in both France and Algeria, involving senior figures in both the military and political life. The release of this film has renewed that controversy. I will not spoil your enjoyment of the film by going into detail now, but if you want the alternative versions, check out the full script of this preview, when it is put on the Clubs Website sometime in the next few days.

From everything I’ve been able to find out about the film, it is an excellent use of cinema to tell a story in a powerful and moving way. It climaxes in a quite incredible "Last Supper" sequence, in which the monks share red wine to the accompaniment of Tchaikovsky's Grand Theme from Swan Lake, playing on an old tape machine in the corner. Some people who have watched this scene have claimed it overwrought, overdone, but most critics found it very moving.

The monks are a in spartan order devoted to contemplation and prayer. Their community has developed a happy relationship with the local Muslim villagers, based partly on the free outpatient clinic they provide. They have a quiet, supportive respect for each other's traditions. But dark forces are gathering: intolerant jihadist forces have already murdered Croatian construction workers, and are rumoured to have the Catholic monks in their sights as the ultimate prize.

I leave it to you to find out what happens. ………………..

Enjoy the film.

In the film we saw the seven “hostage” monks being led by away by their captors, leaving the two remaining monks undiscovered, but unable to call for help as the phone lines had been cut.

So what actually happened . The official communications by the Algerian Government at the time were as follows:-

March 26-27, 1996 – Around twenty armed men force their way into the Tibéhirine monastery, taking Christian, Luc, Christophe, Michel, Célestin, Paul and Bruno captive. Two members of the community escape.

April 18, 1996 – Djamel Zitouni, head of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), claims responsibility for the kidnapping in a statement.

April 30, 1996 – A messenger from the kidnappers delivers an audio cassette of the hostages' voices, demanding that the French government release prisoners linked to the GIA in exchange for the monks' freedom.

May 21, 1996 – A second statement claiming to be from the GIA announces that the monks have been killed. "We have slit the throats of the seven monks, as promised," it declares.

But

July 17, 1997 - Sid Ali Benhadjar, a former GIA emir of the Médéa region who had quit the group to form his own group, the Islamic League of Dawa and Jihad, issues a statement accusing the Algerian authorities of having infiltrated the GIA and ordered the kidnapping of the monks.

1997-1998 – A succession of brutal massacres by unidentified armed men plunges the country into even further violence. Questions are raised about suspected links to the Algerian security forces, who repeatedly fail to intervene or capture those doing the killing.

June 14, 1998 (John Sweeney, The Observer )
The Abbot-General of the Trappist Order was insistent: he wanted to see the bodies of his seven monks, killed, he had been assured, by Algeria's crazed Islamists in an atrocity that had shocked all of France. The abbot, Bernardo Olivera, and his assistant, Armand Veilleux, had travelled from Rome to Algiers and wanted to go to Tibehrine, the monastery from where the monks had been abducted. The first surprise was that the bodies were not at the monastery, but in a mortuary of a military hospital in the Algiers suburbs. The abbot had been told the throats of the monks had been slit - they call it 'the Big Smile' in Algeria - on 23 May 1996. The Algerians relented under pressure and finally opened the coffins. The abbot was prepared for the worst, but he was stupefied when he saw what was in the coffins. Not seven corpses, but only seven severed heads.
Where were the rest of the bodies? How had the monks been killed? The three-year-old mystery was given a sinister turn last week when it emerged that the Algerian officer who first accused his own government of staging the massacre of the monks, to blacken the name of Islamic fundamentalists, has himself been killed.

September 2003 - Mohammed Samraoui, the former second-in-charge of the counterinsurgency and internal security department of the Algerian secret services, comes out with his own book in 2003, "Chronicles of the years of blood". He alleges a small group of generals deliberately created the armed "Islamist" groups to protect their grip on power.

December 2003 – Father Veilleux and the family of Christophe Lebreton, one of the deceased monks, file suit to have the allegations made by the Algerian dissidents investigated.

March 2006 – A presidential decree in Algeria grants blanket amnesty for the security forces, state-armed militias and many members of the armed groups. The law criminalises questioning the role the security forces and their allies played in the civil war – effectively silencing families of the disappeared and media.

July 6, 2008 – An anonymous source tells the Italian newspaper La Stampa that the monks were killed by Algerian army M124 helicopters, not the GIA.
June 25, 2009 – Retired General François Buchwalter, former military attach testifies that the monks were killed in a "blunder" by the Algerian military attaché and not by the GIA.

July 9, 2009 – French president Nicolas Sarkozy promises that "there will be no classified information in this case," yet in spite of the allegations, stresses that he is remains convinced that the monks were killed by the GIA.

August 20, 2009 – Judge Marc Trévidic sends letters to the ministers of defence, the interior and foreign affairs, requesting the declassification of documents relevant to the case.

May 2010 – A film about the monks of Tibéhirine, "Of Gods and men" by Xavier Beauvois, debuts at Cannes.

So what did happen ? You’ve paid your money. You take your choice. One thing I have learned whilst researching for this preview, is that no matter how extreme your position, you’ll find a website somewhere on the internet that both agrees and makes that position look tame !

Mark Grainger