Review of Of Gods and Men

Of Gods and Men is a fascinating film which presents arguments that will divide people - is it about faith and belief in God, or is it about religion and politics, should we admire the monks or feel compassion or just sigh with frustration at their turmoils? Or could we go one step further and comment that men and their quests for power and identity in the world just leads to one problem after another. I couldn't see any difference between the Islamic extremists, the brutality of the military or the stubborn pride of the monks fixated in their faith and their mission to help people and serve God. Of course we could say that the monks were 'good' but what right did they have to stay in that country when they were asked to leave by the government and that their very presence incited hatred and reminder of French colonialism and made even more violence? This blind arrogance that the monks had, was typically patriarchal as was the assumption that the Islamic extremists (all men as well) had the right to kill and destroy for their beliefs and the army (all male) could inflict a bullying regime in the name of politics and power etc etc. I can assume that when the monks were praying and in their darkest hours they were praying to a MALE God and furthermore, this sacrifice they all made was at the expense of family and bonds back in their own countries. Who knows what suffering they had all left behind for their choice of life. The total lack of feminine presence in the film was extremely powerful in reminding us that without the feminine having equal rights in society (and that includes Islamic society) there is no hope for balance and harmony. We do not live in a world where women have equal rights and that frankly makes the biggest problem. The Algerian peasant women were there in the background herded around like the sheep and goats and one village female elder had one voice in the entire film, the women were symbolically there for child rearing and nothing else. Meanwhile the monks fretted and stormed and prayed and had all kinds of crisis of their inner faith - somewhere they found brotherhood, most poignantly on an evening of a last supper together and with the strangest choice of music playing which brought them all to tears - Swan Lake. This seemed the most unlikely music to bring a group of devout monks to tears. But let's remember the story - Swan Lake is about male/female love and how the union of true love between a man and a woman conquers evil and darkness. Perhaps this is the biggest message of the film - a monk's life without the inclusion of women cannot be a full embrace of life, an Islamic extremist who keeps women in the middle ages cannot truly ever live in peace or harmony and a government and regime that uses bombs and war as a measure of keeping control be that government Algerian or anywhere else in the world, is ultimately destroying generations of children and their hope for a peaceful world - that is the misuse of power and patriarchal power structures that still rule the world we live in.