Stills from Of Gods and Men and (below) The Seventh Seal. Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar, May 28: A French drama and a Swedish classic are all set to delight movie lovers in the city at Film Society of Bhubaneswar’s monthly event that will screen the two films.

The screening will be held on Thursday evening at Jayadev Bhavan Auditorium.

The first screening of the evening is the French film — Of Gods and Men (2010), directed by Xavier Beauvois. The film, originally titled Des Hommes et Des Dieux, was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes International Film Festival.

Loosely based on the true story of a group of Christian monks working in Tibhirine, an impoverished region in Algeria, from 1993 till their kidnapping in 1996, Of Gods and Men is a moving tale. When a terrorist group massacres a crew of foreign workers, fear sweeps through the region. The monks, who live in harmony with their Muslim brothers, now have to make a choice whether to stay or return to France for safety. But despite the growing menace, they gradually realise that they have no choice but to stay braving the odds. The film ends on a sad note.

The second screening of the evening is part of the section that the film society members fondly call “classics revisited”. The film chosen in the section is Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 classic, The Seventh Seal.

Disillusioned and exhausted after a decade of battling in the Crusades, the film shows a medieval knight Antonius Block (played by Max von Sydow) encountering the grim reaper (played by actor Bengt Ekerot), on a desolate beach. The reaper challenges him to a fateful game of chess. The man seeks answers about life, death and the existence of God as he plays chess with the mascot of death.

The film has become an important subject in film schools. Very few films have had as large a cultural impact as Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. Allegorical and lyrical, the film remains enormously mesmerising and relevant even more than 50 years after its initial release.

“The first film gives insight into unhealthy equation of politics and religion. So far Bergman is concerned, he was someone, who is synonymous with parallel cinema,” said Jagat Basa, a member of the society.