There be Dragons: Even Saints Have a Past

Below is a synopsis of There Be Dragons, a film featuring St Josemaria:

Starring Charlie Cox (STARDUST), Wes Bentley (AMERICAN BEAUTY), Olga Kurylenko (QUANTUM OF SOLACE), Emmy Award-winning actor Derek Jacobi (GLADIATOR), Dougray Scott (MISSION IMPOSSIBLE II) and Rodrigo Santoro (300), THERE BE DRAGONS tells the story of London-based investigative journalist Robert Torres (Dougray Scott), who visits Spain to research a book about Josemaría Escrivá (Cox), the controversial founder of Opus Dei. But Robert hits a wall, both professionally and personally, when his most promising source—his own father, Manolo Torres (Bentley), turns out to be his least cooperative one. Robert begins to unearth his father’s toxic secrets when he learns that Manolo was not only born in the same Spanish town as Josemaría, but that they were childhood friends and attended the same seminary. The two men take radically different paths in life, with Josemaría dedicating his life to his faith while Manolo is swept into the brutal and tumultuous Spanish Civil War. Manolo descends into a dangerous and jealous obsession when the beautiful Hungarian revolutionary Ildiko (Olga Kurylenko) doesn’t return his affections and instead gives herself to the courageous military leader, Oriol (Rodrigo Santoro).

As Robert continues to unearth the secrets of Josemaría’s life and Manolo’s mysterious anger, their overlapping journeys are revealed with the truths and sorrows of their past choices, which compels Manolo to confront his own secret with one last opportunity of forgiveness.

Dates of Premiere Screening in Philippine theaters:

October 1, Saturday, 1:30 pm
SM MOA, Premier Cinema
Contact: Erika Sanchez 0908-8850891

October 8, Saturday
SM Cagayan de Oro

October 14, Friday
SM Clark (Pampanga)

October 15, Saturday, 7:00 pm
SM MOA, Premier Cinema
Contact: 637-0912 local 397 or alumni@uap.asia

October 16, Sunday, 9:30 am
SM Sta Rosa
Contact: Myrna Romabiles 0928-2299671

October 16, Sunday
Ayala Center

October 21, Friday, 6:00 pm
SM Batangas City
Contact: Cora Gonzales 0917-5047829

A Movie Featuring St Josemaria Escriva

This year is Anihan's 25th of working in the area of women-in-development and its management and staff are happy that a movie featuring St Josemaria Escriva, the inspiration behind Anihan, will have its Philippine premiere on October 1, 2011 (Saturday) at the SM Mall of Asia.

Watch the official trailer of the movie There Be Dragons below:



If you do not see any video above, click this YouTube link:
http://youtu.be/kwgo9sldmwU

The epic background of the movie is the Spanish Civil War, the bloody conflict that rocked Spain from 1936-1939. Go to THERE BE DRAGONS: A Historical Guide for Viewers

St Josemaria, the founder of Opus Dei, is the person who gave the inspiration and the encouragement to establish educational centers for women in various countries around the world. Anihan Technical School is one of these.

St Josemaria insisted on the importance of helping women, especially those from the less privileged sector, have access to education and other development opportunities so that they can discover and develop their own unique talents and contribute to the improvement of society.

In an interview with a Spanish magazine, Telva, in 1968, St Josemaria said:

(With regard to women's distinct qualities)

Development, maturity, emancipation of women should not mean a pretence of equality, of uniformity with men, a servile imitation of a man's way of doing things. That would not get us anywhere. Women would turn out losers, not because they are better than men or worse, but because they are different...

Women are called to bring to the family, to society and to the Church, characteristics which are their own and which they alone can give: their gentle warmth and untiring generosity, their love for detail, their quick-wittedness and intuition, their simple and deep piety, their constancy... A woman's femininity is genuine only if she is aware of the beauty of this contribution for which there is no substitute and if she incorporates it into her own life.

(With regard to women's participation in public life and politics)

A woman with adequate training should find the field of public life open to her at all levels. In this sense it is impossible to point out specific tasks that correspond to women alone. As I said earlier, in this field what is specific is not the task or position in itself, but the way in which the work is done. There are values which a woman more readily perceives, and her specific contribution will often, therefore, change the whole approach to a problem, and can lead to the discovery of completely new approaches.

There be Dragons is by Roland Joffe, the director who brought us the highly acclaimed "The Mission" and "Killing Fields".

A powerful story of war, tragedy, love and redemption, There Be Dragons will have other premiere showings on:

• October 15, SM Mall of Asia
• October 16, SM Sta Rosa

We will continue updating the list of the movie's premiere dates in succeeding posts.