As I left the cinema last night with my hand tucked into Steve’s, huddling down into my jacket to escape the cold bite of night air, I felt more like I was leaving a funeral than a movie theatre. As we slowly made our way home I felt exhausted by the two hour intense rollercoaster of feelings; curiosity, suspicion, grief, guilt, disbelief and an over-whelming sense of injustice…
The Constant Gardener is the latest in a long line of films that have drawn me in and opened my eyes and heart to the injustices of this world. It’s a well-told story of a husband’s grief over his wife’s death, and his subsequent quest to find the culprits of her demise.
Juxtaposing the breath-taking landscape of Kenya and Sudan and the corruption and poverty of modern day Africa, Constant Gardener is no patronising nod to the needs of a continent; it’s a brutal wake up call to the Western World told through the micro-narrative of a love story in reverse.
As Justin Quaile (a British diplomat performed with excellent realism by Ralf Fiennes) becomes more and more desperate to expose his own nations’ exploitation of the vulnerable AIDS population of Kenya, his motivation moves from love of his wife to a deeper conviction to finish her crusade to overcome injustice. As the stakes are raised the question is how far will an ordinary man go to defend a people group he could never know personally.
As I’ve travelled throughout Europe and a small part of North Africa I’ve always felt an embarrassed guilt at how vastly superior my quality of life is to millions of people living in poverty today. The advice always given to tourists and travellers is ‘ignore them, they might be con artists, you can’t help them all’ but I was deeply challenged by Justin’s simple, yet obvious, reply…
“I may not be able to help them all but I can help this one…”
It’s strange that messages like this aren’t coming from the global Church but instead are rising from Hollywood, the music industry and the Entertainment world in general. Though the Constant Gardener isn’t a film made by a Christian community its theme is definitely inspired by the image of God; sacrifice, justice, truth, love, poverty, going the extra mile, loving your African brother more than yourself.
I love that God’s love of justice is reflected in the all of humanity even if we don’t always chose to demonstrate it. The Constant Gardner is a well made, well acted fictional drama that touches on real issues for the 21st Century Global community; beautiful, brutal and challenging. I defy anyone to watch it and not feel their hearts respond with the power and momentum of the films thumping sound track. xc