The final movie in our movies with a message sermon series is the 2014 film, The hundred foot Journey, which is available on HBO Max and Amazon Prime. It’s about an Indian family that immigrates to Europe after their Mumbai restaurant was firebombed, and their matriarch was killed. While driving in search of a location for a new restaurant, they end up in a small French village, and Abbu, the family patriarch, declares that fate brought them to this place, and it is here that they will open their new restaurant, which will be called Maison Mumbai. The middle son, Hassan, who cooked with his mother in the restaurant in Mumbai, will be the cook. Soon, though, they discover that across the street from their new restaurant is a French restaurant owned by Madam Mallory, where everyone eats, including the president of France, and conflict begins. Although it delves into serious subjects, like prejudice against “outsiders,” The hundred foot journey is hopeful movie, showing people overcoming their distrust of those who aren’t like them, which leads them from competition to cooperation, from “us” and “them” to “we.” It is also a coming-of-age tale, has two sweet love stories, and as we saw in the clip, food is its own character. But its primary motif is the journey, and it presents all kinds of journeys, from Hassan’s family’s journey from India to France, adapting to a different culture, facing prejudice, and making personal sacrifices, to Madam Mallory’s journey to prove to herself and everyone else that her restaurant is the best, by earning a second Michelin star, to Hassan’s journey from Indian cook to French chef. The focus, though, is on the hundred- foot journey of the title, the distance between the two restaurants that each of the main characters takes, a physical and symbolic journey that involves a crucible moment for each of them, that leads them to let go of their own egos and work together. Madam Mallory makes the first move, when on Bastille Day, Maison Mumbai is fire- bombed, injuring Hassan, and graffiti is painted on their wall that says, “France is for the French.” When she finds out that one of her own cooks was responsible, she fires him and gives the rest of the staff a lesson on nationalism and prejudice, a lesson she is still learning herself, and takes the hundred -foot journey to personally clean off the graffiti. Her gesture leads Abbu to make one of his own. Then Hassan, whose hands are bandaged from the fire, asks her if they can make an omelet together. As we saw in the clip, they do, mixing French sauces and Indian spices, and after one bite, she realizes just how talented he is, more talented than she is, and she offers him a job as sous chef at her restaurant. Abbu, who before had accused her of trying to steal his son and the cook of his restaurant, now agrees to allow him to work for her. And Hassan leaves behind all he has ever known to become a French chef. Once these characters are able to see that different doesn’t mean bad, they grow closer and closer. By the end of the movie, the hundred -foot path between the two restaurants is well-worn, as their love of good food and their love for each other fuses together two families and two cultures. The journey to the togetherness that they found was not easy for any of them. It took them realizing how unnecessary the divide between them was, and being willing to lay down their armor and step out of their comfort zones in order to try to bridge that divide. It takes that for us to bridge our divides too. What can we do to get to the place of acceptance and understanding between ourselves and those we have considered others? Study the different cultures and religions of those we share the planet with? Learn the language of the people we work with? Read books about how to become anti-racist and anti-homophobic and anti-xenophobic and put what we learn into practice? Climb down from our ladder of privilege to walk in the shoes of someone who is not privileged? New Vision has always been a bridge builder. Our community conversations 3 years ago brought together a diverse group of people in our town to discuss racism and homophobia and inequity. The theme was finding commonality and respecting diversity. These conversations led to our involvement in the Fernandina Pride Parade and Festival, and they were the foundation for the anti-racism work we are currently engaged in. But there is always more that we can do to help turn “us” and “them” into “we.” Build back trust after centuries of discrimination and dismantle those systems of discrimination. As we saw in the movie, the best way to bridge the divide between us is to physically get together, to worship and eat, socialize with and get to know people of different races and cultures and orientations and gender identities. After the pandemic is over, I want that to be one of our primary goals, to purposefully build relationships with people in our community who have different backgrounds and life experiences. I think it will be a major step for uson our journey to become the beloved community that Jesus wanted for us.
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