The Law

Description

In the beautiful island of Barbados, differences in culture, religion, and economic status have fueled the biases and resentment between El and his new neighbor Jadon. However, after a neighborhood robbery, the tension reaches an all time high. Having spent most of his childhood in America, El loves that unlike America, the hardest times in Barbados are still met with neighborly love. Jadon however is not impressed by ‘village’ life, which is favoured by his wife Adila whose mother grew up there, and prefers not to mingle. When Jadon becomes the victim of an act of violence, El is forced to battle each other’s stereotypes and question his beliefs. This is the test for El to find his own grace and Jadon his own humility. Can these two neighbours find a common ground? Will they fulfill the law?

Biblical Connection

Romans 13:8 states “Owe no man anything except to love one another for he that loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” Loving thy neighbor has been as difficult a concept to grasp now as it was then. Jesus used the Good Samaritan to explain who thy neighbor is and this film The Law attempts to take aspects of both the parable and the above biblical quote to reinforce this principle. In today’s society, religious, economic and cultural disparities are the cause of alienation, aggression and war. The Good Samaritan in the parable was an unlikely ally and in this film I attempt to show that as different as it may seem we are, we are all of God and anything we do to each other we are doing to ourselves. It was also important for me to highlight that overcoming resentment and fear to fulfill the law is one of deep conscious thought and that grace is often born out of adversity. A Rastafarian, who even through his own biases and judgments, recognizes that we are all one and each other’s neighbor, depicts my Samaritan.