Directed by : Xavier Beauvois br Produced by : Why Not Productions, Armada Films br Genre: Fiction - Runtime: 2 h br French release: 08092010 br Production year: 2010 br br A monastery in the middle of the Algerian mountains, during the 1990s.br br Eight French Cistercian monks live in harmony with the Muslim population.br br One day, foreign workers are massacred by a group of Islamic fundamentalists. Panic spreads among the inhabitants. The army offers to protect the monks, but they refuse assistence. Should they leave? Despite the menacing circumstances that increasingly surround them, the monks decide in unison to remain, whatever the cost.br br This film is loosely based on the lives of the Cistercian monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, from 1993 up until their kidnapping in 1996.