Review of Of Gods and Men (2010) by Tomas T — 17 Mar 2012

Of Gods and Men tells a true tale of 8 french Christian monks in a war torn Algeria.

In its simplicity the movie is about peaceful monks living their humble lives at a remote Algerian monastery in 990's. This might sound very tedious and boring, and that it is at times, but all that changes when a group of Islamic fundamentalist start terrorizing the local countryside. Much of the movie is spent visualizing the peaceful and routine filled lives of the monks and this part of the film is beautiful, however the atmosphere changes totally once the men of cloth come face to face with the fundamentalist fighters. Terror and despair spreads amongst the monks as they start to question their resolve and faith.

For the most part the movie is beautiful and grips the viewer with its solemn and silent intensity. The director uses the few violent scenes of the film with great efficiency and their impact is great. Best part of the film are the monks, the actors are just terrific as they bring out the subtle differences between the men in very down to earth kind of fashion. Yes, the movie can be painstakingly slow paced especially in the beginning and the whole movie cannot be considered as entertaining in a typical sense. All this added together and you have a very unique film at hand, and one that is not everybody's cup of tea, so to say.