Mon père, le Diable

Nominated for Best Film at last year's Spirit Awards. Ellie Foumbi's searing French movie OUR FATHER, THE DEVIL centers on Marie (Babetida Sadjo), an immigrant from Guinea, who seems to be doing fine as the head chef of a Nursing home. That is, until a new priest, Father Patrick (Souleymane Sy Savane) starts preaching at the facility. Marie immediately has a physical reaction to his presence. She's convinced he's an evil criminal from her homeland.

Foumbi's feature isn't a whodunit, nor a crime film, it's an exploration of the soul. Once Marie and the Father engage, it becomes a battle of not only wills, but of ethics and morality. When is one's pursuit of justice veer into revenge? Can there ever be redemption no matter how heinous one's past is alleged to have been?

Sadjo and Savane are quite strong as the dueling protagonists, with solid support from Jennifer Tchiakpe and Maëlle Genet. Foumbi's script occasionally becomes too consciously conventional in its telling, but the last act becomes intensely focused and gruelingly intense. A disturbingly serene ambiance makes it all more powerful. Without showing a single moment of actual military action, OUR FATHER, THE DEVIL reveals the grim toll of a civil war.