THE MISSION

THE MISSION

Plot

The film takes place in the Iguazu waterfalls, where the Jesuit father Gabriel starts a mission for evangelizing the indigenous people and to protect them from becoming slaves, which the Spanish Crown banned. However, in Portuguese territory this was allowed.

In his mission, Gabriel meets Rodrigo, hunter that, after murdering his brother for betrayal, is taken to the mission and experiences a psychological transformation. Everything is going well for the Jesuits when the bruise Altamirano travels there to eliminate the Jesuit communities in a diplomatic way without altering the Portuguese and Spanish powers.

The bruise finally retreats, causing later the Seven Years War. The Jesuit will have to face a political and belic conflict that will end with the annexion of those territories to the Portuguese crown.

History:

In 1586, the first Jesuit arrived Tucumán (Paraguay) and iniciated Evangelist missions and made autosuficient Christian villages. They were sended by the Council of Indians. Years later, during the government of Charles III in Spain the Jesuit were expelled in 1767 by the Pragmatic Santion, leaving the guaranies communities to the franciscans and dominics.

In 1763, during the Seven Year’s War, the Portuguese were conquering many Spanish colonies of Rio Negro and Mato Grosso. However, the Spanish conquered South Brasil. Under the Treaty of Paris of 1763, the colonial map of these two countries was reshaped, meaning the beginning of the end of the Jesuit missions.

Treaty of Madrid

The Treaty of Madrid (1750) was an agreement signed by Ferdinand IV of Spain and John V of Portugal (after the fail of the Treaty of Tordesillas) to define the limits of their colonies in South America. It extended the Portuguese the possessions of Portugal in the New World.

As a consequence of the reshaping of the colonial limits, the region of the Oriental Missions, which included the 7 villages that were near the banks of river Uruguay, became Portuguese.

This treaty is related to the movie because in the film it means that the Jesuits had to fight for the conservation of this territories in Spanish hands. The Jesuit didn’t want this villages to become Portuguese because in the Portuguese Crown it was allowed to take the indigenous as slaves, so the Treaty of Madrid, discussed by the bruise in the New World, was a huge issue for them.

The Jesuit Reductions

The Jesuit Reductions were a group of missioner villages founded in the XVII century by the Jesus company in the guarani villages.

Their objective was to make self-sufficient villages and to evangelize the indigenous people. They taught the guaranis how to read and write Spanish, the Bible, Maths, etc. The girls were taught the same values but also how to sew and cook.

The reductions had no concrete leadership, but they did have a militia armed with fire guns and modern warfare strategies to defend themselves against the Portuguese attackers, which wanted to take the indians as slaves and to eliminate the Jesuits (obstacle for the Portuguese).

How is it related to Zamora?

One of the Jesuit missioners who went there, Diego de Torres Bollo, was from Zamora. He also was one of the most important defensors of the right of the indians against slavery.

He was born in 1555 and his father was the governor of the States of the Condestable. His ambition was to make a religious and peaceful utopia in the Jesuit reductions. He crossed the Atlantic sea on 1580 to go to Peru, where he preached the values of spiritual and moral transformation. After working all his life for the Jesuit reductions, he died in 1638 fainted.

THE NAME OF THE ROSE

Characters:

1.      What are the names of the two main characters of the movie?

They are William of Baskerville and Adso of Melk

2.      What religious order do they belong to? Who founded the order and what the order’s key principles?

They belong to the Franciscan religious order, founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. They defend, mainly, the poverty of Christ.

3.      What other famous pair in the crime novel could you compare them with?

I think William of Baskerville and Adso have some similarities with Sherlock Holmes and Watson: William analyzes the clues of the crime, and Adso is his assistant, similar to the British Sherlock and Watson.

4.      Why do these two characters go this Abbey in northern Italy?

They go there to debate whether Christ lived in poverty or not.

5.      What are the secret instruments that Brother William carries? Why did he cover them when he received the Abbot’s visit in his cell?

He was taking out of his bag a star meter and a sand clock, and he covered them with a blanket when he heard the Abbot’s steps. He hide them because he could get into trouble because he wasn't really faithful and a strong believer. Instead, he wanted to see something else.

6.      Which of the two theological current, Patristics or Scholasticism would you identify Brother William with? Why?
      He is from the Shcolasticism, because he likes to compaginate the religious believes with the search of reason, as he always wants to find a logical answer to everything, like the murders.

7.      Which character in the film would oppose, from the theological-philosophical point of view of Bro. William?

George of Burgos. While Bro. William defends certain ideas such as laughter, George disregards and hate on them.

8.      The character of Bro. William is inspired of William of Ockham. Finde some information about this character and his philosophy

William of Ockham was a Franciscan and philosopher, born in Surrey (England) in the 13^th Century. He was “the most nominalist person ever”. His ideas (from the nominalism) oppose to the existence of the universal concepts neither in the reality nor in the people’s mind.

9.      What does the peasant girl symbolize? What vision existed for women and love in the Middle Ages according to the film?

According to the film, the girl symbolizes the temptation and the evil. It was thought that women were distraction and bad things.

10.  Who were the “Dulcinians” or “Dulcinites”?

The Dulcinans were people, considered despicable, that stole from the rich to give it to the poor. In the film, Remigio took the food from the abbey to give it back to the peasants.

Which characters in the film practiced the heresy?

Apart from Remigio considered heretic, Salvatore also practiced heresy

Abbey:

1.      What monastic order does the abbey belong to?

The monks from the abbey are Benedictins.

2.      Who founded this order and what was their motto?

Its founder is Benit from Nursy. The motto that can be seen in the scriptorium is "ora e labora", but the real benedictins motto is "do not put anything before God's love".

3.      What activities take place in the monastery?

God is prayed, livestock raised, books copied…

4.      Why do the peasants go to the abbey? What were the social groups in the Middle Ages and what was their role in society?

Peasants go to the Abbey to pay the tithe to the monks (10% of the harvest). In the Middle Ages, during feudalism, peasants were the main supply of food for the rest of the states.

5.      What architectural style appears in the movie? And what are its main characteristics?

In the movie, it appears Romanesque in the Abbey and other buildings. The Romanesque is spiritual and dark, as it depicts the fear and respect to god. The churches are small, dark, with few windows, round arches and canon vault.

6.      Does the Abbey that inspired the novel still exist? Where is it?

Yes, the Saint Michael of Chiesa abbey really exists. It is on the Pirichiarno Mountain in Italy, some kilometers away from Rome.

The story

1.      After the first deaths, what book of the Bible seems to answer to those inexplicable murders? Why?

It was the apocalypse book, because year 1000 was close and because all deaths looked like they were similar to the predictions and storyline that this book of the Bible says.

2.      What is the debate that occurs in the Abbey about?

The debate was about the poverty of Christ (if Christ lived in poverty or not)

3.      Why Pontifical Delegates were sent to participate in this debate?
     Because they were the rivals of the franciscans in the debate about the poverty of Christ. The Pontifical Delegates defend that the Church should keep it's wealth.

4.      What are the two opposing argument that mark the debate?

One of the arguments is that the Church should be poor and give its possessions to the most needed, as Christ did. The other argument claims that if the Church is poor, it will have nothing to fight the unfaithful.

5.      What does Bernardo Gui symbolize? Did he really exist?

Bernardo Gui symbolizes the Inquisition and the most conservative and assertive face of the Church. He really existed. He was a French Dominique and Inquisitor who wrote a book about inquisition and heresy.

6.      What was the Holy Inquisition?

It was a Christian religious organization that was in charge of controlling what is said about religion, to censure blasphemy and to fight heresy.

7.      What tricks are used by the Director to keep the plot’s intrigue and the viewer’s attention?

He tries to confuse the viewer, making him doubt which one of the ugly monks is the bad one. Also, constant killings and the small guiltiness of the monks are showed to keep the intrigue.

8.      What does ugliness symbolize in the movie?

It symbolizes everything evil and non-religious. The ugly monks have bad intentions behind and make the viewer see them as suspects of the crimes of the Abbey.

The books

1.      What classical authors is Bro. William “in love” with?

He says he is in love with the Greek philosopher Aristotle and with the Roman writers Ovidio and Virgilio.

2.      What do these authors have in common?

They are all from the Greco-Latin culture and literature

3.      What opposing arguments about laughter appear in the movie?

George of Burgos says that laughter is an evil thing that makes men look like monkeys. He also says that Christ never laughed.

4.      What forbidden book used humor and comedy as an instrument of truth?

It was Aristotle second poetic book, which was lost centuries ago and was dedicated to humor as an instrument of truth

5.      Why did Venerable Jorge poison the tips of that book’s pages?

Because he hated laughter, and that book was about comedy and humor. As a way to punish the sinners who read the book, he poisoned the tips of the pages of the book, so when the reader wets his fingers and touches it to move to the next page, he will make contact with the poison.

6.      Why did Umberto Eco title his novel as The Name of the Rose?

He named it like that to make a reference to a Bernard Gui’s poem. This poem says that in this imperfect world, the only things that never die are ideas. This can be seen in the movie about the concepts of laughter and the Inquisition.

Commentary

I found this film interesting at first, but then it began to bore me out. I know it is very instructive: it teaches history and makes the viewer think about the Inquisition and the ideas of the time. However, it was very long for me, and in most parts I didn’t really understand the plot and what was going on. 

SUMBA

1. What features animism define the believes of Sumba?

The spirits of the ancestors are around them and are close to them. These spirits, which can be also found in every other thing in nature, are living within the  people of the village.
 Anismism believes that everything in nature has its onw essence.

2. Who is the Ratu for the village? 

Is a priests that listens to the spirits. He has to guess when the new year starts by looking at the Niali, a seaworm.

3. Which are the examples of dualism that appear in the video?

In dualism, everything has two different sides. For examples, there are two entrances for the temple, one for men and one for women. There are also two columns that sustain the Earth, which represent day and night, Sun and Moon, men and women, evil and good... We can also find it in the sheath (masculine), and the nut (feminine).

4. Explain the universal symbols that appear in the video and how they adapt to the believings of the village

For example, when a person died, they use stone to keep that spirit around them, as stones represents what is everlasting. Trees also represent something special. In this case, they are axes that connect the Gods in the sky with the humans on Earth. There is an important tree which is the centre of the city. Moreover, there are engraved symbols in columns that represent fertility.

These symbols are connected to the animism because they have a close relation with the animist view of everything having an essence. We can see this, as an example, in the rocks. To keep the spirits of their ancestors around them and to live within them, the people of the village uses rocks to make that everlasting.

5. Explain the symbols of the house, what parts and how they decorate

The house is divided in three floors. The bottom part is for animals, the middle for persons and the top is for Marapu, or Gods. The hens life with the humans in the middle part of the house. The house is decorated with buffallo skulls, animals that they had previously sacrified to the gods. Inside the house, there are two columns that sustain the Earth, and represent men and women, evil and good, Sun and Moon, etc. and other opposite nature things found in the dualist believes.

6. Who is Marapu?

The Marapu are the spirits who are around the people in the village. They are mainly the ones of their fathers and grandfathers who died.
7. Explain the symbolism of the Loom and explain the drawing of Ikats 

The drawings of the Ikats tell the past of their land and village. We can see in some of them representations of the portuguese conquerors, when they arrived at the island. There are also representations of spirits and horses, sacred animals which were carried from Arabia to Indonesia.

8. How do the Sumbe anounce the new year?

The Ratu listens to the spirits and observates the Niali, a seaworm. When the time of the year in which the Niali goes to the shoars to reproduce, the new year is about to come, because they indicate the new anual moon. After the Ratu has received this information, he preaches this to all the village.

9. Explain the symbolsim of Pasola

Pasola is an event where the villagers ride horses (sacred animals) with spears, handkerchiefs and hats on their heads. The horseriders fight inside of a circle limited by spectetators. In this event, there has to be blood for the Pasola to be good, as the blood spoiled gives fertility. Also, the Pasola calms the spirits.

10. How the ratu tell the future of the village?

He listen to spirits by praying and singing. This way, he communicates with the Gods and the spirits which are around him, and these tell the Ratu the future of the village. When he had recopilated all this information, the Ratu preaches the destiny of the village to his fellow.