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Walker's Three to See: <i>Of Gods and Men</i>

KCUR Arts Reporter Steve Walker shares his top movie pick of the week.France's 2010 submission for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar is lovely, sad and moving. It is based on a tragic true story about group of Monks whose monastery serves as a health center for the poor villagers in a Muslim country. Around the village is much unrest from religious extremists who, for example, kill a teenage girl for not wearing a veil and then killing a group of Croatian aide workers just outside the town. The monks are advised that they need military protection, which the head of the order refuses - he doesn't want that kind of armed presence around their pacifist ways. But when extremists enter the compound to seek medical help for a wounded thug, the monks have to begin a debate about whether they can even stay. The movie asks profound questions about personal faith and values while being patiently (others might say slow) paced and beautifully shot, especially a scene where the monks are internally pondering their votes while the score swells with "Swan Lake."

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