The Mission | |
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Directed by | |
Produced by |
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Cinematography | Thorsten Thielow |
Edited by | Aaron Wickenden |
Music by | |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Picturehouse Altitude Film Sales (Internationally) [1] |
Release dates |
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Running time | 103 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $58,639 [2] [3] |
The Mission is a 2023 American documentary film directed and produced by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss. It explores the death of American missionary John Allen Chau, who was killed by arrows during a self-initiated mission involving an indigenous group of the Andaman Islands, the Sentinelese.
It had its world premiere at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2023, and was released on October 13, 2023, by Picturehouse.
In 2018, John Allen Chau, an American missionary, went to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. He then illegally attempted to make contact with one of the world's most isolated indigenous peoples, the uncontacted and legally protected Sentinelese. After bribing fishermen to take him to North Sentinel Island, Chau was killed by the Sentinelese. The film explores his life and death. Levi Davis, a fellow student of Chau's, historian Adam Goodheart, and professor and former missionary Daniel Everett appear in the film. [4]
It had its world premiere at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2023. [5] [6] It also screened at the Camden International Film Festival on September 15, 2023. [7] [8] and the BFI London Film Festival on October 8, 2023. [9] [10] It was released on October 13, 2023, by Picturehouse. [11]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 94% of 51 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.4/10.The website's consensus reads: "The Mission's compassionate and nuanced approach to retelling a real-life tragedy makes this an engrossing exploration of the intersection between delusion and faith." [12] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 74 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [13]
The Andaman Islands are an archipelago, made up of 200 islands, in the northeastern Indian Ocean about 130 km (81 mi) southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between the Bay of Bengal to the west and the Andaman Sea to the east. Most of the islands are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a Union Territory of India, while the Coco Islands and Preparis Island are part of the Yangon Region of Myanmar.
North Sentinel Island is one of the Andaman Islands, an Indian archipelago in the Bay of Bengal which also includes South Sentinel Island. The island is a protected area of India. It is home to the Sentinelese, an indigenous tribe in voluntary isolation who have defended, often by force, their protected isolation from the outside world. The island is about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) long and 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) wide, and its area is approximately 60 square kilometres (23 sq mi).
The Sentinelese, also known as the Sentineli and the North Sentinel Islanders, are an indigenous people who inhabit North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal in the northeastern Indian Ocean. Designated a particularly vulnerable tribal group and a Scheduled Tribe, they belong to the broader class of Andamanese peoples.
The Andamanese are the various indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, part of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the union territory in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal. The Andamanese are a designated Scheduled Tribe in India's constitution.
Picturehouse is an American independent entertainment company owned by CEO Bob Berney and COO Jeanne R. Berney. Based in Los Angeles, the company specializes in film marketing and distribution, both in the U.S. and internationally. Its releases have included La Vie en Rose (2007), which earned an Academy Award for Best Actress for Marion Cotillard, Metallica Through the Never (2013), and Adam Wingard's Sundance Film Festival selection The Guest (2014), an Independent Spirit Award nominee starring Dan Stevens.
The Silver Medallion is an award given by the Telluride Film Festival in recognition of achievements in the film industry.
Jesse Moss is an American documentary filmmaker and cinematographer known for his cinéma vérité style. His 2014 film, The Overnighters, was shortlisted for best documentary feature at the Oscars. He has directed four independent, feature-length films, and three television documentaries and has produced 15 documentaries.
John Allen Chau was an American evangelical Christian missionary who was killed by the Sentinelese, a tribe in voluntary isolation, after illegally traveling to North Sentinel Island in an attempt to introduce the tribe to Christianity.
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The 50th Telluride Film Festival took place between August 31 and September 4, 2023, in Telluride, Colorado. Marking the fiftieth edition of the festival, Alfonso Cuarón, Adam Curtis, Ethan Hawke, Rachel Kushner, Steve McQueen, and Mira Nair, all of them past guests, were invited to return as Guest Directors. The poster for Telluride Film Festival's fiftieth anniversary, designed by Luke Dorman, was released in July 2023. Dorman is the Principal Graphic Designer at Meow Wolf.
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The 67th BFI London Film Festival was a film festival that took place from 4–15 October 2023. The competition films were announced on 29 August 2023 while the films for the galas and the strands were revealed on 31 August 2023. The juries for the various sections of the festival were announced on 19 September 2023.
Amanda McBaine is an American film director and producer. She has co-directed and produced Boys State (2020), and The Mission (2023) with Jesse Moss. She has additionally produced The Overnighters (2014), The Bandit (2016), and Mayor Pete (2021).
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