Inspiring true story follows the epic life of Father Damien (Wenham), a legendary Belgian priest who dedicated his life (quite literally) to the care and spiritual guidance of a doomed Hawaiian leper colony during the late 1800s. Faced with appallingly daunting conditions--symptoms ignored, food stolen from the sick, the weak forced into slavery, diseased girls forced into prostitution--the priest supported himself through his sense of justice and his unwavering faith. A counterpart of other beneficent luminaries such as Mother Theresa and Gandhi, Damien`s story speaks of the triumph of the human and the indomitable force of one man`s will to do what is morally and spiritually right in a
beautiful, alien world. Spectacular scenery and panoramic Hawaiian vistas add a particularly aesthetic pleasure to the story.
Screenplay by John Briley, the scribe responsible for GANDHI.
