Very languidly paced French film but absorbing nonetheless with quiet but powerful acting; based on the true story of a number of Christian monks who, having lived in an Algerian monastery alongside an Algerian village for years, are kidnapped and slaughtered by Islamic militants in the mayhem of the 1990s. The film is not really about their demise, but of their emotional/spiritual challenges as the war outside encroaches on their lives bit by bit.
