Simple Courage (1992)

Director's Cut. Re-released. SIMPLE COURAGE tells the tragic story of Hawaii's leprosy epidemic (1865-1965) and the compassionate intervention of Belgium priest Father Damien de Veuster. The film's epilogue draws some parallels with how we are dealing with the AIDS epidemic. Simple Courage documents the treatment of leprosy victims in Hawaii in the 19th and early 20th century. More than 8,000 sufferers, mostly native, were banished to an isolated peninsula and practically abandoned. One man, however, in a simple act of courage, took it upon himself to bring comfort to these hopeless people. He was Father Damien, a Catholic missionary from Belgium, who spent sixteen years caring for the "untouchables" until he himself succumbed to the disease. He transformed their prison into a place of decency and respect. Using archival footage and moving interviews with survivors from the '30s and '40s, Simple Courage shows the emotional pain of banishment from their ancestral homes added to the ravages of the disease.