Conscience and Courage

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday August 27, 2002 00:00 by Graham Caswell caswell at indigo dot ie

'Amen' Playing now at the IFC Dublin

This is an incredible film of conscience and courage with many resonances for those active against injustice today. It's in its last week at the IFC, so you'll have to hurry. Go see it. It's excellent.

This is an incredible film of conscience and courage from the director of Missing (1982). It's about the Catholic Church's collaboration with the Nazis and the failure of the Pope and hierarchy to speak out against the extermination of the Jews. however it deals with deeper and wider issues, including the obligation to act in the face of evil and the tendency of the comfortable not to want to know.

SS officer Kurt Gerstein (Ulrich Tukur)is faced with the reality of the holocaust but cannot get anybody to listen to him. Driven by his conscience to alert the rest of the world, he teams up with a young Jesuit priest, Riccardo Fontana (Mathieu Kassovitz), but their protestations fall on deaf ears in the Vatican.

After realising the reality of the church's complicity in the holocaust Fontana puts on a Star of David and finds his way to the extermination camps.

This is a chilling film but is well worth seeing. It has many resonances for those active against injustice today. It's in its last week at the IFC, so you'll have to hurry.

Go see it though. It's excellent.