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Of Gods and Men [Des Hommes et des Dieux] ,1 a film directed by Xavier Beauvois, narrates a dramatic episode in recent history: seven French Trappist2 monks were captured as hostages from the monastery of Tibhirine in Algeria and, two months later, were found beheaded. These events, which are to this day the object of much speculation,3 took place in the mid-1990s during the turbulent period of civil war in that country, when bands of guerrilla fighters from the armed Islamic Group were intimidating the population with their violence in an attempt to impose Muslim fundamentalist values on the Algerian secular state.
Of Gods and Men, which was awarded the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, is the latest addition to a rather impressive body of cinematic works centred on life in convents or monasteries - a list which includes an episode from Paisà ; important features such as Black Narcissus , The Nun's Story , The Devils ) and The Name of the Rose ; and several documentaries such as Into Great Silence 4 and Per sempre .
Monasteries and convents are indeed an inexhaustible source for the imagination. They are quiet oases of peace, often surrounded by walls, or hidden in forests, or dominating the landscape from the top of a hill. The monks’ and nuns’ self-imposed discipline and lifestyle, their focus on searching spiritual above material happiness, even their very appearance, dressed as they are in their religious habits, are all elements that separate and differentiate them from the rest of humanity. Inside their order, however, that same vocation, formal appearance and obedience to rules aim at making them as similar as possible to one another and, to external observers, united in their common faith and shared ideals.