in the open space: God & culture

Last month, Netflix released First They Killed My Father , based on the experience of Loung Ung who is a childhood survivor of the  Pol Pot regime during the Khmer Rouge years in Cam bodia . It is not only a compelling story of individual suffering and the personal toll of a horrific period in history but also a story with galvanizing relevance today. Director Angelina Jolie, who co-wrote the script with Loung, whose book provides the source material. The film peels away the layers of politics and history and gives a human face to the genocide of a quarter of Cambodia’s population. Jolie crafts the story so that we experience the horrors of war, hunger, violence and loss through the eyes of a child. This adds power to the rare moments that bring comfort: a smile, a kind voice, the gentle touch of a hand and, somewhat paradoxically, stunning images of natural beauty. Some critics thought Jolie’s use of beauty weakened the film, but I found it haunting. It brought t...

“One ship against the three of us? They are outnumbered.” ~ Sergeant Azima Kandie in the “ Detect, Deceive, Destroy” episode of  The Last Ship If you read this blog, you know I’m a fan of disaster and sci-fi stories, so it will come as no surprise that  The Last Ship   is part of my regular summer viewing. The TNT action-drama, which wrapped up its fourth season this month, centers on the crew of the   U.S.S. Nathan James   after a global pandemic wipes out over 80 percent of the world’s population. The crew of the U.S. Navy ship spends the first three seasons finding and distributing a cure and the fourth tracking down and finding the solution to a plant virus that threatens to wipe out the world’s food supply. The last season or two has slipped into a more formulaic format than the first two. As Captain Chandler has transformed from a vulnerable father and mourning husband struggling with the consequences and costs of leadership into your stan...

Recently, I finally got around to watching Lion , the Oscar-nominated film based on the true story of Saroo Brierley who, as a five-year-old boy, is accidentally separated from his older brother while scavenging in trains in India. After falling asleep on a bench at one of the stations, Saroo (played by Sunny Pawar) boards another train hoping to find his brother but ends up 1600 kilometers away in Calcutta. Illiterate, Saroo doesn’t know his last name or his mother’s name and he can't speak the local language, so he ends up spending harrowing weeks trying to survive on the streets. He eventually ends up in an orphanage, where he’s adopted by Sue and John Brierley (played by Nicole Kidman and David Wenham) along with another boy from India, and they both grow up in Australia. In his 20s, haunted by his past, Saroo (now played by Dev Patel) begins a six-year search for his birthplace, eventually locating the town he grew up in using Google Earth and reuniting with his birth m...