Black Robe (1991)

August Schellenberg: Chomina

Photos 

Quotes 

• Montagnais : [indicates Laforgue and Daniel]  They have hairy faces like dogs. Who are they?

  Chomina : They are French.

  Father Laforgue : We have come to help you! We have been sent by our God, who is the God of us all!

  Montagnais : He can't speak properly.

  Chomina : They have their own tongue. It is like birds singing.

  Montagnais : Are they intelligent?

  Ougebmat : No.

• Father Laforgue : When I die, Chomina, I will go to paradise. Let me baptise you so I may take you with me.

  Chomina : Why would I go to your paradise? Are my people there? My woman? My boy? There's only blackrobes.

• [watching Laforgue write in his diary] 

  Chomina : Blackrobe, what you do?

  Father Laforgue : I am making words.

  Chomina : Making words? You not speak.

  Father Laforgue : I will show you. Tell me something.

  Chomina : Tell what?

  Father Laforgue : Something I do not know.

  Chomina : My woman's mother die in snow last winter.

  [Laforgue writes it and shows the book to Daniel] 

  Daniel : It says Chomina's woman's mother died in snow last winter.

  Father Laforgue : I have still other, greater things I can teach you.

  Ougebmat : He is a demon!

• Chomina : Tomorrow do not cry out.

  Daniel : If we do cry out, will they stop (torturing us)?

  Chomina : No, they will not stop. But if you cry out when you die, they will have your spirit.

• Chomina : Tell me, Blackrobe, what does your dream say now?

  Father Laforgue : I am too weary for dreams.

  Chomina : You must. If you do not, how do you see the way ahead?

  Father Laforgue : Put my trust in God. He will guide me all the way to paradise.

  Chomina : But you have not seen this paradise. No man should welcome death. This world is a cruel place, but it is the sunlight. I am sorry I leave now.

• [watching LaForgue give the last rites to a dying baby] 

  Mestigoit : Watch this, he is going to cast a spell.

  Father Laforgue : Oh God of mercy, please bless this innocent child...

  Chomina : No. He is talking to his God.

  Father Laforgue : [making the sign of the cross]  ... in nomini patri et fili et spiritu sancti...

  Ougebmat : See that sign? That's how they steal our spirit.

• Chomina : If we had kept our promise to Champlain, there would be no problem.

  Ougebmat : Promise? For axes, pots, and flints? Not even one musket.

  Chomina : But we accepted their gifts! We have come to need them. This is our undoing - and it will be our ending.

  Mestigoit : They are not gifts. There are no gifts given by the French that aren't paid for.