Salmon Fishing In The Yemen (Britain , 2011) – Our Redeemed Future
A visionary sheik believes if he shares his passion salmon fishing with his desert people he can enrich their lives. To turn what seems an impossible dream into reality he enlists a pragmatic British expert who thinks the project is both absurd and unachievable. For political reasons he is conscripted against his will into the project and discovers in that journey his life changing.

Questions for Reflection About the Movie:
– A closed myth is one in which an interpretation of reality is held as fixed and unchangeable. A broken myth is one which was closed but no longer functions to understand reality in a life-giving manner, yet cannot be abandoned. An open myth is one which calls us beyond ourselves into the realm of Mystery, creativity and vulnerability. Discuss how, in this film, these three myths are played off against each other.
– It is a common perception that a romantic comedy is sentimental and escapist, and this film has been criticised as such. Underlying that perception is a view of the world as tragic. How does the film counter this view, and what sequence in the film best shows this counter-position?

Questions for Prayer and Refection on this Exercise:
– What are the transitional element in our life? How do we discern what to do next in the midst of these transitions? What values do we use for these discernments?
– How does the film help us to clarify those values?
– In your life can you remember the times God came to you in ways that upset your familiar world?
– Can you recall when those events brought you to a new way of living that was liberating?
– As we lean into our open myths there are elements of surprise and what some might call co-incidence. How do those elements suggest to us that we are in connection with a life bigger than ours? Do we read those suggestions as invitations to a greater trust, or do we read them with suspicion?
– In what ways do praying our redeemed future transform our imaginations?
– How is this made concrete in our lives?

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This reflection is taken from www.fgitd.ca – a website which was developed to deal with current films and with further insights into the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. 

Finding God In the Dark: Taking the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius to the Movies (Novalis) by Canadian Jesuits, John Pungente and Monty Williams, answered a need for those looking to have access to their spiritual life but who did not have access to spiritual direction.  The web site  – www.fgitd.ca – continues this work. Please go to the web site for further material on the theme of the reflection.

The 2013 series –  Redeeming the Time – available on the web-site  www.fgitd.ca  allows users to explore the ways in which God uses our responses to our past, how we live today, and how we anticipate what is coming, to develop a deeper spiritual intimacy with God.   Earlier series – beginning in 2005 – are archived on the site. Check it out . . it could change your life.