In 1996 seven French trappist monks were killed by radical muslims in Algeria. In this film we follow their lives, doing their catholic thing, providing medical care to the community, growing crops, honey, etc. They are then presented with the threat and the focus shifts to their coping with fear...each in his own way.
The characters were well drawn and sympathetic. Strong sense of place. They were strangers in a strange land...leftover colonial hangers-on...loved by some, hated by others. They could have left...but to what?
I was thoroughly engaged but the film went on too long. By the end of the second hour I had become restless, fidgeting in my seat and had stopped caring about these men. Too bad. At 90 minutes it would have been a masterpiece.
6
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