Educational Media Reviews Online

This is a profoundly stirring work that explores the phenomena of forgiveness, reconciliation, guilt, and penance. It begins with a brief survey of the traditions and practices of forgiveness in various religions. It then sets forth a series of thoughtful questions to be explored, including “What is the root of forgiveness for those who do not hold to religion?” The film sets out to examine what forgiveness is and what it is becoming.

Forgiveness is primarily composed of sections dealing with an event calling forgiveness into question. In the analysis of the 2006 Amish school shootings in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania and other tragedies, the film explores when it is not acceptable to forgive. The Amish community immediately forgave the shooter, and some criticized the Amish for this. Others admired the Amish condition-free forgiveness. Events examined in this film move to a national level, examining war crimes in World War II and in Rwanda in 1994. This documentary does a superb job in showing how guilt and outrage can affect a nation’s identity. President Reagan visited a German cemetery in Bitburg, Germany to honor the war dead. When people learned that graves of SS soldiers were located in this cemetery, international controversy began. The film also deals with the therapeutic effects for forgiver and forgiven. Japan’s leadership publicly apologized for damages done in wartime.

Forgiveness returns to personal examples of tragic murders. This documentary asks the deepest possible questions relating to revenge and spite. There is very little music to keep the focus on the emotional impact of the questions, perspectives, and troubling examples of crime. Extensive details on these crimes are provided. Another revealing episode explores an inimical divorce in an American family and the lasting effects for those who are slow to forgive and unable to forgive. The entire work is divided into sections corresponding to topics, such as atonement, enabling the viewer to easily navigate to needed content.

The word “powerful” does not begin to give adequate praise to this work. This is a grand enterprise treating the ethics of a series of fundamental human emotions and consequent behaviors. It skillfully balances the grim with the sanguine. With such a delicate topic, the filmmakers never once appear preachy or sensationalist. This brilliant work is strongly recommended to all who wish to stimulate discussion or even privately reflect on the place of forgiveness in the world.