Film review: How Far Is Heaven

In its quiet way, this is a moving, challenging piece of work, says David Larsen.

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25th August, 2012

Film review

Most people with any knowledge of history would agree that Christian missionaries have done a great deal of good and a great deal of harm over the centuries – although getting atheists, people of faith, liberals and conservatives to agree precisely where the good and the harm fall is a trickier question. The startling thing about Miriam Smith and Christopher Pryor’s documentary How Far Is Heaven is that it presents a vision of missionary life that is likely to draw approval from all of these groups, and yet it isn’t a collection of bland nostrums. Smith and Pryor shot the film ...

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