“The Mission”, believe in God: Mission Impossible?

Many virtues are granted to art. However, As for cinema, does it have the power to transform consciences, to modify a trajectory, individual or collective? Moreover, This summer. Consequently, The duty invites thinkers, creators and activists to discuss a film that has deeply marked them, and which could exert a positive influence in those who will take the time to discover it, or to rediscover it. Consequently,

In the fourth episode of the series a film to change the world. However, the time is for exploration – and exploitation – colonial, the expiation of sins and betrayals, with The Mission (V.F. In addition, : The mission1986). Furthermore, the Roland Madffé (The Killing Fields, City of Joy, Vatel), crowned with the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Similarly, This is the choice of the poet, director and columnist “the mission”, believe god: mission Christian Vézina, author of The inventory of miracles. For example, Poetry (Planet Rebelle, 2009), A Sunday at my window (All in all, 2018), Line fishing. Similarly, Thoughts, proverbs, aphorisms (All in all, 2018) and Unpublished ministries. Nevertheless, Thinking together of neglected issues (Co -written with Normand Baillargeon, Xyz, 2023).

Under what circumstances have you discovered this historical drama on the presence of the Jesuits in South America in the 18th century^e century. In addition, their rivalries with the colonial powers, as well as with the Vatican, and especially their efforts to evangelize and sedentize the Guaranis?

It all started with music! Meanwhile, At the time of its release. Furthermore, I heard a cultural columnist on radio-Canada radio talk about it, followed by an extract from the soundtrack: I was subjugated! Nevertheless, It was so sublime that I told myself that the film would surely be up to the compositions of. Moreover, “the mission”, believe god: mission Ennio Morricone. Furthermore, Be in front of The Mission On the big screen. Furthermore, it was at the same time an artistic, mystical, human and political adventure.

In addition to music. For example, a summit in the career of the Italian composer who already had several, including with filmmaker Sergio Leone, what has particularly struck you or seduced?

They should have added an “S” to the film! Moreover, Because there is not only a mission in this story of superb narrative complexity. Similarly, It is just as much the mission of brother Gabriel [Jeremy Irons] Seeking to establish a community for the Guaranis. where we teach them music, that that of the mercenary Rodrigo Mendoza [Robert De Niro]who wants to atone for his fault after killing his brother [Aidan Quinn]to the point of wanting to be dying and then becoming a religious. And finally. it is the confrontation of the “the mission”, believe god: mission Jesuits with, on the one hand, the Portuguese and Spanish colonizers, and, on the other, the representative of the Vatican, to let them build their missions. In short, there are lots of things that collide, and all this in very few words. On the other hand, what speaks a lot in this film are bodies, images, gestures.

From your point of view, what do all these things say?

One of the great themes of the film is the expiation. a Christian mystical quest almost impossible to reach, which makes it a religion of hypocrites. But that gives one of the greatest performances of Robert de Niro. when his character agrees to help Brother Gabriel and decides to climb a fall with a very heavy bag on his back. All this at the cost of great efforts and at the risk of his life. What he does in this scene, no director “the mission”, believe god: mission could demand such a performance from an actor. At the top of the fall. he cries and he laughs at the same time, leaving his dementia thanks in part to a Guarani who cuts the rope from his bag. Before that, it was just a proud, a human idiot, who committed the irreparable. And the scene is imbued with poetry, modesty, beauty.

Basically, The Mission You inspire you because it makes something spiritual, even religious vibrate in you?

I have a very strange relationship to religion [catholique]. On the existence of God. I know that I do not know, and a lot of believers are a little in the same posture as me. On the other hand. my mother, who joined the charismatic renewal, mounted the oratory steps twice on her knees to remove the death of people she loved. For my part. every time I go to a church, “the mission”, believe god: mission I kneel on the ground in front of the altar; It is an automatic gesture that I make for my parents, for those who built the church. But I want this same church. because of a religion of forgiveness and life, Christianity has made it a religion of death and guilt. Not to mention that she has often participated in the deconstruction and dehumanization of the other. And we didn’t completely out of it. The church once sold us indulgences. today we have to buy carbon credits: give us money so that we can save you … from hell or climate change. To come back The Missionwe see religious deciding to take up arms to save the beauty of the world. including Rodrigo Mendoza, who wants to be blessed before fighting, which Brother Gabriel refuses him. But he does not condemn him. We are in the presence of a not “the mission”, believe god: mission very comforting film. which makes us relive this difficulty: that of being a human being.

A few months ago. you wrote this in The duty : “Our famous story with its famous great H is never that the desperately redundant sum of the stories of who wanted to be the strongest, the master, the owner, the elected representative of divine law; It is the basis of patriarchy. Without knowing it, you have summarized The Mission !

What this film tells, ultimately, is how we can all be crushed by beliefs, structures, convictions. Sometimes the essence of what we are appeared in all our actions. Sometimes we are subject to insensitive laws that massacre people, destroy nature and landscapes and do not respect local cultures. To make it change, it takes resilience, which I would define by the novel that you want to tell yourself. I can tell myself that I “the mission”, believe god: mission am a victim, but I can also decide to want to change things. On the other hand, it is not done alone. When we tell human history. that of languages, writing or mathematics, it is always a story of collaborations between individuals and between peoples. Let’s say it: Albert Einstein does not exist without Galileo. and Galileo does not exist without [le mathématicien perse Al-Khwarizmi]the one who invented algebra.

The Mission Has caused you a strong impression, but has a scene marked you more than others?

Humanity is a project, or at least, this is how I see it. In The Missionthe big project [des Jésuites] is completely destroyed. We see a little girl entering an empty. burnt down church, and then getting out of it and picking up a violin in the water … It shows how much the peoples. both the Guaranis and the Inuit, “the mission”, believe god: mission those who have chosen to live in harmony with nature, are often despised. However, they have so much to teach us. I have often said: it is our differences that make our identity. but it is our similarities that make our humanity. And they are more numerous than our differences. Unfortunately. we imagine more difficult to end the end of capitalism than the end of the world, which shows our state of alienation. However, it is an absurd system that ruins our planet with limited resources. And we are all dying in this system.

The Missionfrom Roland Joffé, is accessible on the following platforms: Apple TV +, YouTube, The Criterion Channel and Google Play.

"the mission", believe god: mission – "the mission", believe god: mission

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