Is 'Of Gods and Men' the Movie of the Year?

t's still only March, but I don't hope to see a better movie this year than Xavier Beauvois's Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des dieux), winner of the Grand -- meaning second -- Prize at last year's Cannes Festival. It tells   the true story of the Trappist Monks of Notre-Dame de l'Atlas in Tibhirine, Algeria, whose little monastery, a forlorn relic of the French imperial presence in that country, was invaded and the monks kidnapped and later murdered by Islamicist guerrillas in 1996. M. Beauvois does not sensationalize their deaths, however, and he appears to have little interest in the political conflicts within Algeria that led to them. This is no accident. The historical Brother Christian (Lambert Wilson), the prior of the Tibhirine monastic community, belonged to a French military family and had himself served during the Algerian war. Much might have been made of the fact, if the film had had a political or historical or, indeed, a psychological point to make instead of a religious one. As it is, however, its focus on the piety, the goodness, the fellowship and the courage of the monks is much more interesting and unusual and in my opinion could not but have suffered from the introduction of a political subtext.