A driven Nicholas Gage, a New York Times journalist returns to Greece in the late 1970's to unearth the events surrounding his mother's death at the hands of a Communist firing squad during the Greek Civil War in 1948. After hearing first-hand reports of Eleni Gatzoyiannis' courage and love, Nicholas tracks down and confronts her torturer and sentencer with the intention of repaying this formative injustice in kind. Ideology of whatever stripe seems to curtail our humanity because we have to choose between a humane response and a cause.
True believers act boldly yet sadly without considering their very real human context.
Paul gave an example of when as a fundamentalist he betrayed his friend's petition for church membership because he believed his friend wasn't pure enough in his belief. The conversation moved even closer to home when Paul suggested that all of us have something we hold dear or believe passionately about. The line between passion and oppression seems so fine. Bev noted that Eleni, who confronted her oppressors with her truth, should not be taken as a statement on motherhood but on what happens in rare individuals. All those soldiers who shot neighbors and the neighbors who betrayed friends.