On the night of 24 August 410, an extraordinary event shook the world: the barbarian hordes of Alaric entered Rome… The death of an eternal city, the end of a civilisation, inspired the African bishop Augustine to write the twenty-two books of the “City of God”. This Latin Berber, who taught rhetoric before becoming a monk and bishop, was born in Thagoste, an African municiple, today Souk-Ahras, in Algeria.
Through the “Confessions”, the letters and the works of Saint Augustine, and through the settings of Algeria and Italy, the film, step by step, evokes the presence of this man whose “true” face or unique thought it would be futile to try and capture. The presence of a personality who dominates history, the actuality of a saintly life that was first and foremost the life of a man who contains the very essence of Christianity.
“Love your neighbour and consider the source of this love within yourself. Then your light will dawn, like the morning light…”