Review: "Man Of God" (2021)

When I was in high school, before I became a Christian, I read a story from the Orient that stayed with me for years. It went like this:

 

The master Hakuin was praised by his neighbors as one living a pure life. 

A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store lived near him. Suddenly, without any warning, he parents discovered she was with child.

This made her parents angry. She would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment at last named Hakuin. 

In great anger the parents went to the master. "Is that so?" was all he would say.

After the child was born it was brought to Hakuin. By this time he has lost his reputation, which did not trouble him, but he took very good care of the child. He obtained milk from his neighbors and everything else the little one needed.

A year later the girl-mother could stand it no longer. She told her parents the truth--that the real father of the child was a young man who worked in the fishmarket.

The mother and father of the girl at once went to Hakuin to ask his forgiveness, to apologize at length, and to get the child back again. 

Hakuin was willing. In yielding the child, all he said was: "Is that so?"

Man of God follows a similar trajectory in recounting the tale of St. Nektarios, revered in the Orthodox church as a saint known for his piety, kindness, love for the poor, asceticism, and holy detachment in the face of detraction and slander. 

The false accusations leveled at him throughout the film--from the clergy who try to exile him from Egypt so he will not be a potential threat in the Episcopy, to the mother of a young nun under his care who accuses the holy man of impregnating her--are undertaken with a holy indfference. But it is also humanized in his character as one who feels the pain of being misunderstood, of losing his reputation and facing scorn from others. And yet, in the end, all that matters to St. Nektarios is the will of God, and alligning himself with that will.

The film (set in the late 19th century) was beautifully shot, and the acting was excellent. Alexander Petrov personifies the kind-hearted, gentle, and austere docility of the saint. He also has a John Vianney moment when he takes work as an itinerant preacher in a place no one else wants to go; he is reviled and ignored as he preaches to a group of disinterested local men. Eventually, he is left all alone, talking to the wind in the empty church walls..

There were some humorous parts too; as the principal of a secondary school, when he is confronted with misbehaving boys, he says, "You leave me no choice--I must punish...myself." Rather than inflict, he inspires, and in this instance undertakes a hunger strike until the conflict is resolved. The boys are impressed by his sincerity and authenticity, and many become ascetics modeling themselves after him. At one point, he secretly cleans the dormitory toilets because the janitor is ill and he knows he has a family to support. In other instances, he is seen clearing brush and hauling rocks to bring beauty to the grounds.

His companion--a boy from the school who floats his writings to publishers--carries with him the anger of the injustice in him not being elected Patriach. Nektarios is relieved to be free of the temptation to power and prestige, which he knows come with that vocation. He is content to be a priest who identifies with the poor, the outcasts, and those who hunger and thirst for the word of God. 

In the final scene, before his death, he is in a simple hospital room (which he shares with a poor man who fell from a cliff and is paralyzed, played by Mickey Rourke). He is drawing his last breaths, at in a moving vision, speaks his last words: "Are you speaking to me, my Lord?" And then with a few gasping breaths, enters into his repose. The saint's garment--which is laid on his companion during his passing--brings with it the blessings of a miraculous healing. 

I found Man of God to be a simple, inspiring, and very human film which painted a portrait of holy detachment and indifference, love of God and love of neighbor, and a willingness to bless those who revile. Very well done, and very much worth renting.