Of People and of Gods

Director: Xavier Beauvois, France 2010, 122 minutes, drama

Introduction: Isis Mrugalla

In The Notre-Dame de l’Atlas monastery in Tibhirine, high in the Algerian Atlas mountains and alongside a majority Muslim population, live nine Trappist monks.

When radical Islamists start making demands that all foreigners leave the country and a group of Croatian workers is massacred, the monks are forced to ask themselves whether they should remain in the country or whether they should flee. The monks decline the offer made by the state to put the monastery under armed police protection and the monks find themselves in a difficult period; they are caught between the desire for security and the wish to remain loyal to the local community.

The film was awarded the Grand Prix du Jury and the prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Cannes film festival 2010.

Language: German