We are moving into our third session. This session is called “Love is forgiveness”. I am going to show you a film clip. This film was made in 1986 called “The Mission”. The mission is about the Jesuits trying to do mission work in South American in the 1705 to 1709. One of their commitments was to make contact with the Guaraní people (or the indigenous peoples).

There was a lot of tension between the European states which colonised South America and there was a lot of practise of slavery. We pick up the film between two characters. The first character of the film is Rodrigo Mandoza and the second character is brother Gabrielle. Rodrigo Mandoza is a mercenary. He is a gun for hire. He is a slave trader. His job is to go up to the falls where the Guaraní people are living. Capture them. Bring them back so that they can then be sold into slavery. He is not a nice man. On one of his return trips he discovers his fiancé to be his wife had fallen out of love with him and fallen in love with his brother. He provokes his brother into a duel and kills his brother. His only brother. The brother he has loved so tenderly for all his love. He kills him. He is filmed with such deep remorse that he decides to kill himself through not eating. He is in jail. But he is not going to stay in jail as it was a self defence act so he is not going to be punished by the law. So he will punish himself. He will die of starvation.

Into his life comes brother Gabrielle. This is what happens. We are going to watch this film…



To move past the movie in the audio (on the top right) go to 19 minutes and 30 seconds.

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