Children of the Enemy
Director: Gorki Glaser-Müller * Cast: Patricio Galvez (2016, 96 minutes)
The story of Patricio Galvez’s one man rescue operation is charged with sense of loss, guilt, desperation, determination and relief. Galvez, a Chilean singer who had escaped from the dictatorship of Pinochet had settled in Sweden and had a daughter. His daughter Armanda becomes radicalized by Islam fundamentalists, and marries Michael Skramo, the most infamous Islamic terror promoter.
At the peak of the conflict precipitated by the ISIS, Skramo, Armanda and their eight children left Europe to volunteer for the terror outfit. Amanda, pregnant with her eighth child was killed in an air strike. Skramo married immediately afterwards and took the children with him. The youngest was 1 year old and the eldest 8. He was shot dead while fighting. His children landed in a refugee camp.
When Galvez heard the news he was desperate. His attempts to get any support from the public, the government, or international organizations like the Red Cross failed. His view was: Why should innocent children orphaned by the war be made to pay for the crimes of their dead parents? He was able to persuade a Chilean-Swedish feature film maker, Glaser-Muller, to join his vital mission to bring his grandchildren home to Sweden; a near impossible mission in which he had to face all kinds of bureaucratic obstacles and heartaches. Glaser-Muller undertook the task of recording the quest at every stage in order that, fail or succeed, the story should be made known. The camp was a scene of misery, violence and death. The efforts succeeded and Galvez was able to get his grandchildren back home where they were taken over by the social welfare authorities. Galvez’s dream is to bring them all together to be part of his family.
I Still Believe
Director: Erwin Brothers (Jon& Andrew Erwin) * Cast: KJ Apa, Britt Robertson, Melissa Roxburgh, Nathan Parsons, Shania Twain, Gary Sinise (2020, 116 minutes)
The real life story of an American Christian singer and lyricist Jeremy Camp and the late Melissa Lynn, his first wife, whose death of ovarian cancer shortly after their marriage forms the main thread of this inspirational movie. The movie answers the question of why God allows unexpected tragedies and suffering in peoples’ lives.
The story begins in September 1999. Jeremy Camp meets Jean-Luc LaJoie in a college in California and become fast friends. Jeremy is introduced to Melissa by Jean-Luc,who is in love with her, but she is not interested in Jean Luc and instead dates Jeremy. Jeremy’s closeness to Melissa results in a rift between the friends and Melissa ends the courtship. Jeremy returns home to his family when he receives news of her sudden sickness. Melissa is in a very advanced stage of liver Cancer. When she confesses her love for him, Jeremy reciprocates. He proposes to her. Jeremy is now a reputed Christian song writer and singer. Melissa now has cancer spread to her ovaries and is scheduled to have asurgery. The surgery is cancelled when Jeremy is told that she somehow is now cancer-free. They marry in October 2000. But during their honeymoon cancer reappears and a cure is now impossible. Melissa died within four months, at the age of twenty-one. During these days of trial, Jeremy raises the perennial question of faith questioning God. At the same time, he composes and sings one of his songs Walk by Faith as his bride is nearing death. Jeremy’s anger and complete frustration leads him to give up his musical career. When he breaks his guitar violently, he discovers the note Melissa had hidden inside which tells him that suffering does not weaken faith, but rather strengthens it. Restored to faith by her final message, Jeremy resumes his career. The title of the movie, “I Still Believe” is the song Jeremy wrote after this experience of the renewal of his lost faith. During its first performance Jeremy discovers that his song has an impact on the spiritual lives of others when a girl comes to tell him how she went through a similar experience of losing a loved one and her consequent anger at God. It gives him a new sense of mission.
PROF GIGY JOSEPH
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