Tortured for Christ (2018, 65 minutes)
Director: John Grooters. Cast: Emil Mandanac, Raluca Botez, Stefan Ruxanda, Relu Poalelungi, Alexandra Ionita
This is the memoir of the late Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand who suffered heroically under Romanian Communism. Richard, a Jewish atheist and Communist, was converted by a humble carpenter. As pastor of the Lutheran Church in Romania, faith became his only resistance against Stalinism. Pretending to be tolerant, the Communists brutally persecuted Christians. Arrested underground preachers endured brutal torture, death and slave labour. Russian soldiers who became Christians suffered the same fate. A Christian named Forescu was forced to watch his son tortured before him to reveal the names of fellow Christians. He offered to reveal the names for his son’s sake, but the boy heroically forbade him and was murdered. When Wurmbrand wss caught, he took courage recalling that in the Bible there are 366 verses saying “do not fear!” –one for each day of the year! His wife Sabina, taken from her son, was forced to work in the labour camp. Her ribs were broken during torture. In prison, defying torture and death, Christians never ceased praying. They sang hymns together when the “chains became musical instruments.” In between the torture sessions, they preached to the torturers. Constant beating tore Richard’s feet to the bones, maiming him for life. Once, when the torturer asked him why he should pray when there is nothing left to pray for, his answer stunned the torturer, “I am praying for you!” Infected with TB and falsely informed that his wife was dead, Richard was sent to a death ward in a prison. But he continued to preach and served the fellow patients, bringing many atheists to Christ on their death bed and even some prison doctors. Unimaginable cruelty did not break his spirit. He still loved his torturers. He saw a new kind of Christianity there. Wurmbrand recalls that it was a privilege for him to be in the same cell “with great saints,” “heroes of great faith” like the first Christians. “The supernatural became the natural.” Ransomed in 1965, Wurmbrand and his family continued working for persecuted Christians around the world.
The African Doctor (2016, 96 minutes)
Director: Julien Rambaldi. Cast: Marc Zinga, Aïssa Maïga, Bayron Lebli Médina Diarra, Jonathan Lambert, Mata Gabin Sylvestre Amoussou
This is the delightful true story of a young African who struggles to establish a medical career in France triumphing over racial prejudice. In 1975, Seyolo Zantoko from Zaire graduates from medical school in Lille, the only African in the school. Declining the prestigious offer to be the personal physician of President Joseph Mobutu of Zaire, he declines, on account of the corrupt regime, and decides to raise his family in France. The mayor of Marly-Gomont offers him a clinic in his obscure village away from Paris. His wife Anne and children, Sivi and Kamini, join him, hoping to live in Paris. However they are upset when they learn on arrival that it is a village. The all-white villagers are afraid and distrustful because of racial prejudice. They even suspect his qualification, preferring a native doctor in the neighboring village. His children face bullying at school. Debts pile up and his wife is unhappy. Seyolo is reduced to work as a farm hand to provide for the family. On Christmas day, when his visiting relatives take Seyolo to the church service, they sing hymns African style, surprising and delighting the local parishioners. That day, he gains reputation as a good doctor when he successfully attends an emergency delivery case. His career picks up. The mayor persuades him to stay on at the village. Anne is infuriated and leaves the family for Brussels. His daughter Sivi becomes the local heroine when her soccer skills help the local team win. Anne returns to the family. When the school drama team presents the story of the African doctor’s family, the Seyolos come to realize that they are loved by the local people. They stay on. Seyolo was honoured by a medal of merit a year before his death in 2009.
Prof Gigy Joseph
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