A great tragedy occurred when the life affirming
spirituality of the Indians and their belief in
the power of dreams clashed with the Jesuits'
preachments of Christianity and a Paradise after
death. ""BLACK ROBE" is the story of one Jesuit
priest, Father Laforgue, and his struggle within
this profound conflict. It is a story that conveys
with powerful honesty and intelligence, the fear,
hostility and despair between the Jesuits and the
Indians a clash of cultures that eventually
resulted in the destruction and abandonment of the
Jesuit missions, and the conquest of the Huron
people by the Iroquois, their deadly enemy, and
which is still shaping the tidal flow of Canadian
life today. Father Laforgue is a rigid and driven
man with dreams of martyrdom. He ventures on a
harrowing journey to an isolated mission to ""reap
a great harvest of souls"". He takes with him
Daniel, a young French carpenter who acts as his
translator. Laforgue and Daniel are accompanied by
a band of Algonquins led by the regal chief
Chomina. Laforgue experiences a spiritual crisis
during the journey. He feels his beliefs
challenged by the chief's powerful dream and
spirit religion. Daniel falls in love with the
chief's breathtakingly beautiful daughter Annuka,
and Laforgue is tormented with lust and guilt
inspired by the natural love-making of the young
couple. The journey is plagued by hardships and
deprivations, and bloody confrontations with the
Iroquois people. In the end, it is Laforgue whose
beliefs undergo a conversion.
Format size: | Widescreen |
Languages: | English, French |
Runtime: | 101 min. |
Number of discs: | 1 |
Subtitles: | Spanish, French |