When a gunman killed five Amish children and injured five others in a Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania schoolhouse shooting in October of 2006, the world media attention rapidly turned from the tragic events to the extraordinary forgiveness demonstrated by the Amish community.
Murder is one of the hardest crimes to forgive and, in particular, anyone who has lot a child to murder, would be understood if they could not readily forgive those responsible. The courts of many jurisdictions allow survivors to speak at sentencing hearings to communicate something of the nature of their loss and grief - the impact of the crime. Understandably such statements are regularly defined by both a high level of grief and a wish for some form of judicial revenge. It is therefore difficult for many to understand the need of some to find a level of forgiveness towards those who commit significant wrongdoing. In 2006 a group of Amish people found in their faith and belief an ability to forgive the murderer of five children of their community and the wounding of several others. Amish Grace seeks to explain how such forgiveness could occur, even to the point of three elders visiting the widow of the killer on the very day of the heinous act. That approach, of trying to find understanding in a terrible tragedy, of reaching out even when you are screaming with pain, is the subject of Amish Grace. The script is perhaps a little prosaic and the story told without flourish but this is a message picture with a difficult message to absorb. That it for the most part succeeds in communicating a concept so foreign to many is to its absolute credit. Not a film to be watched for high production values or stellar acting but it manages to convey its messages well.
