A first look at "Of Gods and Men"

For my money, this is the first must-see movie of 2011.  I read the book “The Monks of Tibhirine” a few years back, and was deeply moved by this story of a Trappist monks martyred by radical Muslims in Algeria in the 1990s.  The movie tells this same story, and strikes me as carrying a message that’s both timely, and timeless, about persistence, and prayer, and a faith that transcends fear.  As the movie’s publicists describe it: “The film tells a love story wrapped in a horror story. It draws on the research and drama of the monks’ kidnapping and death told in John Kiser’s prize winning book, The Monks of Tibhirine: Faith, Love and Terror in Algeria ( St Martin’s Press). Translated into French in 2006, the account detailed the monks’ struggle to reconcile their vows with their instinct to flee a violent death.”

Watch the trailer below.