Words with Gods is an exploration of the relationship between different cultures and religion. Aboriginal Spirituality, Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, Shinto Buddhism, Orthodox Christianity, Umbanda, Hinduism, as well as Atheism find their expression in this two-hour film.
Based on a concept by Guillermo Arriaga and arranged in the present order by Mario Vargas Llosa the film's nine episodes present different perspectives on this distinctly human phenomenon.
IMDB
http://www.wordswithgods.com/
Words with Gods is directed by Guillermo Arriaga, Héctor Babenco, Bahman Ghobadi, Amos Gitai, Emir Kusturica, Mira Nair, Hideo Nakata, Warwick Thornton and Álex de la Iglesia. The soundtrack was written and performed by Peter Gabriel, with animations by Maribel Martinez.
Words with Gods is the first of four installments in the groundbreaking Heartbeat of the World anthology film series.
Warwick Thornton
True Gods
"When I started to look for a reason for being on the project Words with Gods I peeled back the folk tales, urban myths and legends. Deep into my dreams I looked for the great and worthy, the one who was first, the CREATOR. But there in the dark alone I found my mother, my sister, and my grand mother. This enlightenment filled me with joy. For I realized that I was surrounded by GODS, who every day created miracles. The miracle of birth. Someone who can gift life is a GOD to me."
- Warwick Thornton
Héctor Babenco
The Man Who Stole a Duck
.png)
An ordinary man has for years suffered infinite sadness caused by having beaten, then lost his wife. Possessed by this sense of loss he had let his son, only a few months old, cry until he died. The man carries this pain as he wanders along the streets like a madman whose speech is at times bawling and at times murmuring. One day destiny leads him to the side of a lake where he seduces, or is seduced by the singing of, a white duck which responds to what he is saying to it. On the back seat of a public bus he carries the duck, which he is taking to his son. That night, while on his way back from the cemetery a man dressed in white stops his car. A child, also dressed in white, stares fixedly at him from inside the car. Our beggar follows the father and child, who continues to stare at him, to a locale where a cult meeting is taking place. A catharsis will occur and dialogue with God will transform him.
- Héctor Babenco
Mira Nair
God Room
In most devout Hindu family homes in India, there is a room set aside for God and prayer. Our film, God Room, is set in today's Mumbai, about a wealthy extended family moving into an expensive penthouse apartment overlooking slums and the sea. The symbol of a multigenerational family living together in harmony is gradually broken by an escalating argument amongst the family members about where the God Room should be. As the family reveal layers of their hypocrisy and prejudice, only the 8-year-old child in the family sees that God is everywhere...that God is in the eye of the beholder. The home for God is within us, not without.
- Mira Nair
Hideo Nakata
Sufferings
.png)
As an episode in Words with Gods, I wrote and directed Sufferings in 2012. It is based on a true story, about a fisherman who lost his entire family, including his little kids. People who live in the Thohoku district where Tsunami hit are still struggling for living. But I believe in their strength to keep going with acceptance of reality and some kind of hope and joy, which they find in everyday life. I hope Sufferings can comfort them a bit. I would love them to watch Words with Gods in the near future.
- Hideo Nakata
Amos Gitai
The Book of Amos
.png)
But in the end the heart of Amos is softened and he says:
And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel,
and they shall build the waste cities,
and inhabit them;
and they shall plant vineyards,
and drink the wine thereof,
they shall also make gardens,
and eat the fruit of them.
15 And I will plant them upon their land,
and they shall no more be pulled up out.
Amos, 9, 14-16
At this point we are moving to the contemporary city of Haifa, a city of tolerance and coexistence.
The film will include references to the Book of Amos, from the Old Testament. Amos who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, in the days of Osaiah, king of Juda, and Jeroboam, king of Israel.
Amos presents to us a vision of divinity with a strong social dimension. Amos is preaching for social justice, using metaphors from his experience as a peasant and as a shepherd.
Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey?
Will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing?
Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him?
Shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?
Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid?
Shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing,
but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
Amos, 1, 1-7
The film will be shot as a series of short monologues including some of the main cast of Amos Gitai films (actors who participated in Kadosh, Kippur and Kedma) and they will all incarnate fragments of the prophecies of Amos.
- Amos Gitai
Álex de la Iglesia
The Confession
.png)
When it was suggested that I make a Words With Gods episode, a ten-minute cinematographic piece was outlined, in which the dialogue with God should be established from a preeminent Catholic language; or in other words, to create a moral painting in which a Catholic is reflected without being considered a simple caricature.
The essential religious ideas are in my view, defined in the conception of sin as something inherent to the essence of human beings, and in forgiveness through sincere repentance. The most evil man, if he repents will be closer to God that the most virtuous man.
There is no other religion more generous. Kindness is discovered in forgiveness. Evil in the sovereignty of the man of action. Virtue of the ones who don’t do doesn’t matter. We are attracted to the one who makes a mistake and repents - the one who reconstructs his personality tower with the bricks of its errors - the one who rises above others, after falling under the weight of his knees.
This is the ground for The Confession: To narrate how the protagonist falls into destiny’s hands and before dying, an old man gives him the chance to deny his life, and accept he is just a mistaken man, like others.
- Álex de la Iglesia
Emir Kusturica
Our Life
.png)
This film is about humanity, which has a God and it is the best idea that they have found. It is more than just speaking about Orthodox Christianity; it’s about making an image of a man who is always sacrificing himself for his own good and for his well mental being.
- Emir Kusturica
Bahman Ghobadi
Sometimes Look Up
.png)
I live in an area in which each day I witness and hear of fratricide, due to differing religious ideologies. After years of staying in this region, I realized the acts carried out are not spiritual and heavenly, but the issue is religion manipulated by man. The religions are manipulated by man, to use against another man; all the while along we humans have forgotten the real story and the beauty of truth. Whether I believe in God or not, I believe in this.
- Bahman Ghobadi
Guillermo Arriaga
God's Blood
I'm an atheist and I have been attacked several times because of it. Believers don't accept someone who doesn’t believe. Many think that because we are atheist we lack values; or since we don`t have a giant vigilant eye over us, we are out of control and we don't behave ourselves. Nothing is more far from the truth.
I think than an atheist becomes a humanist. Since we don't believe in something else, humans become the core of our life. We don't look up, we don`t look down. We look straight into the eyes of the other human beings. That is important for me, acknowledging that every atheist - in the depth of his heart - is a humanist.
- Guillermo Arriaga
No comments:
Post a Comment