I Am David

A couple of weeks ago we watched a movie that I needed to watch again. So last night we saw I Am David the second time. There was a little confusion for us as we saw the movie the first time, but at the end of the story something was revealed which made me want to see it again with that information enlightening what was occurring earlier.

I really liked this movie. Without being an overtly religious movie (like Luther or Passion) it had a spiritual element to it. The basic plot is that a boy escapes from a prison camp in Bulgaria and is on his way to Denmark.

What's interesting, though, is how he knew no beauty, no good, and spent his whole life afraid. Then he escaped. Could he trust anyone? Could he smile? I think that resonated with me as I'm still recuperating from certain events of recent years.

I'm not sure what I think of the theology. On the one hand, it is true that the heart of man is continually evil. And yet, God gives good gifts. Can we trust people? Well, they're sinners. And yet, there are helpful and kind people in the world. There's definitely Roman Catholic theology in the movie, not Lutheran theology, so I guess the places where I think the message is spot-on is where the movie grows out of catholic doctrine, and the places I'm squeamish about are the parts that emanate from Catholic doctrine.

Two of the main actors in the movie were in Passion the next year: Pilate and Jesus. Interesting to see the interplay in this movie as compared to Passion.

If you don't know Latin, you may want to look at the translation of the Ave Verum Corpus before or after watching the movie. The first time we saw the movie, I was trying to decipher what little Latin I could while trying to figure out why that piece of music was being played for those images in that scene at the end of the movie. Last night, I put the movie on pause at that point, found an online translation of the piece, and then went back to the movie. Ahh! That helped.

What I want now is a book club or a book discussion. Where's Pastor Wiest when you need him for things like this?