Joyeux Noël

Once in a while you watch a movie that is so brilliant you declare, 'I would kill to make a movie like that'. Joyeux Noël, an incredibly executed film qualifies for it hands down. Joyeux Noël, which literally means 'Merry Christmas' is a thought provoking film on the issues of war and peace and how the enemy is no different from us.

The film is based on an event that truly happened on Christmas Eve, 1914, at several locations on the battlefront in the First World War. The German, French and Scottish soldiers fraternized, exchanging gifts and addresses, promising to visit each other when the war was over, even playing soccer.

To me, the highlight of the movie is its relevance even today. That language, nationality, colour, race are all extraneous to the universal human spirit.

It also passingly questions the role of religion in the world. The scene where a God man speaks of His command to fight the war is so reminiscent of George Bush's television statements.

Any movie, any book, any work that oppugns war has my complete support. I fail to see justifications for the brutal murder of man by another man. Nothing can be worth it. Not national pride. Not Heaven in the afterlife. There is no righteous war. For now Merry Christmas.