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“They Used Faith as a Fuel for Hope”: Director Anne Fontaine | Agnus Dei

Agnus Dei

In every film, there is the story that you knew you were telling, the story the audience perceives. But there is always some other story, a secret story. It might be the result of your hidden motivations for making the film, or, instead, the result of themes that only became clear to you after you made the movie. It might be something very personal, or it might be a story you didn’t even know you were telling. What is your film’s secret story?

Twenty years ago, I met a couple of old Vietnamese nuns, who used to run an orphanage in Saigon. These women behaved admirably all their lives. In the middle of the Vietnam War, they had walked all the way from Hué to Saigon (600 miles) taking more than 200 children and babies with them. Though not quite a believer myself, I was incredibly impressed by how they used their faith as a fuel for hope – which is very much the issue at stake in Agnus Dei.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Tuesday, January 26 at 6:15pm — Eccles Theatre]

Sundance Responses 2016

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