Possibly the perfect Sundance documentary given the festival’s proximity to Salt Lake City, the home city for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka Mormons), The Mission is a warm, open and gently illuminating look at a group of young missionaries from the Church leaving home for the first time to travel to the other side of the world in an attempt to convert, of all people, some of Europe’s most non-religious and sceptical people to their faith. Welcome to Finland.
Every year, over 60,000 young missionaries from the Church are sent across the world to preach their gospel with their holy text, the Book of Mormon. The Mission follows four American LDS teenagers who leave the comfort of their families and their religion-filled bubbles to travel to the frozen lands of Finland. Driven by faith and warm-hearted confidence, they soon find themselves missing their family and friends as they are pushed to their very limits.
The foursome had never met before their pre-mission stint at Missionary Training Centre, in Salt Lake City, but despite all being very different personalities, all clearly believe it is important that they take part. Elder Pauole is a gentle young man (seen out shooting with his family) who remarks how “it is required for young men to go out on the mission,” while Elder Davis is gangly and athletic and happiest playing basketball and hanging with friends. But, as he says, “one out of 57 in Finland are members of the church…it would be cool to get that number up.”
More nervous is Sister Field as she says goodbye to her dogs. She and her family share pizza as she practises a few Finnish words she has been learning, while Sister Bills loves listening to music in her car with her sister, admitting that the trip to Finland will be a “bit of a lifestyle change…”
The missionary effort is based on the New Testament pattern of missionaries serving in pairs, teaching the gospel and baptising believers in the name of Jesus Christ. Most of the 60,000 full-time missionaries are young people under the age of 25, serving in over 400 missions throughout the world.
Missionaries work with a companion of the same gender during their mission, single men serving missions for two years and single women serving missions for 18 months. A typical missionary day begins by waking at 6:30 am for personal study, with the day spent proselytising during their follow-up on appointments, visiting homes or meeting people in the street or other public places. Missionaries end their day by 10:30 pm.
We are told how the work is voluntary and missionaries fund their own missions—except for their transportation to and from their field of labour—and are not paid for their services. Every nine weeks they are assigned a new companion and are to not leave each other’s sight for reasons other than personal hygiene purposes. They are also strongly encouraged to limit contact with friends and family to once a week.
In the film the young missionaries head into schools to explain their beliefs, stand on windy and chilly streets and try and engage taciturn Finns in conversation, knocking on doors with the Book of Mormon in hand. They find it hard – especially at the beginning as they struggle to learn the language, but as Sister Bills says, their purpose is to “help bring people to God and the church.”
Tania Anderson’s insightful and always engaging film is shot in cinéma vérité style, and allows the audience to really get to know these young, often wide-eyed missionaries, with the realisation that despite their religious fervour they are also just youngsters trying to engage with a very different people and culture. The film astutely eschews judgement on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but instead offers a glimpse behind the simplistic perception of wide-eyed, smartly-dressed zealots, taking the viewer behind the scenes to really get a sense of what makes them tick.
Finland-Germany, 2022, 96mins
Dir/scr Tania Anderson
Production Danish Bear, Dirk Manthey Film
International sales Autlook Film Sales
Producers Isabelle Karhu, Juho-Pekka Tanskanen, Dirk Manthey
Cinematography Antti Savolainen
Editor Suvi Solja
Music Mikko Joensuu
With Elder Tyler Davis, Sister McKenna Field, Elder Kaii Pauole, Sister Megan Bills
