Bless You, Prison
Director: Nicolae Mărgineanu * Cast: Maria Ploae, Dorina Lazar, Ecaterina Nazare, Damian Oancea, Maria Rotaru (2002. 90 minutes)
A touching movie based on the autobiographical novel by the Rumanian intellectual and political activist Nicoleta Valeria Bruteanu (Prisone, Arise), who was unjustly imprisoned and tortured for four years on account of her political ideals and religious faith. Nicoleta was a leader of the Peasants party that led a major resistance movement against the Nazis during the World War II occupation of Eastern Europe. However, when the country was liberated by the Soviet Army, the Stalinist regime sought to establish a communist puppet government that unleashed brutal persecution upon their political opponents which included the Romanian Orthodox church. Nicoleta is taken prisoner without trial and tortured by the communists demanding her to disclose the names of her alleged collaborators. She refuses to betray innocent people despite severe torture and solitary imprisonment. On the wall of the dark solitary cell she discovers a few verses of the Psalms scrawled by someone, which sparks her frozen faith and hope. Nicoleta keeps her faith alive, adding to the scrawls on her own.
She is later transferred to a slave labour camp. Even under the harsh circumstances, she shares her faith with the fellow prisoners. Some despise her; others accept her witness, and find joy in their terrible condition. The prison guards try to prevent their Easter celebrations, but the prisoners in one section sing a well known Easter hymn, which is soon taken up by the prisoners in the other sections of the camp, raising their spirits. In the prison she experienced the best and the worst the world has to offer. Her rediscovery of God in the midst of this, and the assurance of the protection of the loving God make her grateful rather than bitter. After release Nicoleta and her husband sought political asylum in France and continued to be witnesses to their faith.
Polycarp
Director: Joe Henline * Cast: Garry Nation, Eliya Hurt ,Rusty Martin, Justin Lewis Ryan-Iver Klann Curt Cloninger, Gary Bosek , Ilse Apestegui, Radek Lord (2015, 94 minutes)
Partly fictionalized story of the 2nd century saint and martyr, St Polycarp of Smyrna, who was a disciple of St John the Apostle and bishop of Smyrna, the movie highlights the significant events of the last decade of his life while focusing on the life and times of the first Christian communities in the ancient Eastern Roman empire. At a time when the Rome was at its zenith, the nascent Christian communities are brutally persecuted and even considered atheists because they refuse to worship the emperor as God. The story is told from the point of view of Anna, a liberated slave girl. Polycarp, a slave purchased into freedom by an aristocratic convert to Christian faith, eventually becomes the bishop and is a great influence upon his community. He lives a frugal life, writing letters against the various heresies of the time. Anna, the slave girl, is purchased into freedom by a Christian family and is accepted into the household of Polycarp. She is a total stranger to the Christian idea of God and even questions the injustice of a god who made her a slave. However, she experiences the love of a family in the bishop’s household and learns about the faith. Anna is confused. “I don’t believe in the gods!” she declares. “I don’t believe in the gods either,” Polycarp tells her. “There is a God who answers prayer.” In the meanwhile the arrogant Roman proconsul of Smyrna thinks of the Christian sect as a threat to the empire and unleashes a wave of persecution, throwing professing Christians to the lions or executing them by other means. He conducts public ceremonies erecting a shrine to the emperor and asking Christians to offer acts of public worship or face death. Young Anna is witness to such scenes. Once unwittingly she becomes instrumental in the victimization of one young member of the community and her friend. The boy is fed to the lions in the arena in public. When the Proconsul seeks the life of Polycarp, his friends urge him to flee. He does so unwillingly. When he realizes that it is time for him to make his stand, he returns. He is arrested, and is brought before the Proconsul. When asked to offer incense worship to the emperor or face death, Polycarp accepts his martyrdom, declaring clearly that he does respect the emperor but would not worship a human in place of the true God, Jesus. He tells the Proconsul that for eight-six years he has served the Lord, and will not now betray Him.
Prof Gigy Joseph
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