Joseph and Mary hide in Roman Egypt, trying to protect teenage Yeshua from people, but also temptation, and the personification of evil.
Eerie and definitely unique angle. The holy day is almost upon us, and what better first Christmas film review than teenage Jesus… horror edition! Before we move to the facts surrounding the film, though, here’s a thing or two about it. Producer/writer/director Lofty Nathan brought to life a version of young Jesus that you have not seen before, and chances are you have never read either – unless you’ve read “The Infancy Gospel of Thomas”. It is a version in which darkness and sinister forces surround him. People suffer, happiness is nowhere to be found, disease, famine, temptation, poverty, superstition… all surround a boy who knows nothing of where he comes from, nothing of what he can do, and nothing of who he will become.
Everything you see is a sign of what the New Testament dictates he will encounter many years later. Magnolia Pictures believed in Nathan’s vision and invested in this slow-burning thriller/horror that is not meant to frighten the audience, but to challenge its perspective and emotions. Did they succeed in doing so? No matter what you read or hear, there will always be one way for you to find out.
Nicholas Cage, FKA Twigs, Noah Jupe, Isla Johnston, and many great Greek actors give you a good idea of what things might have been like back then in a film that seems more medieval than anything else. If it’s a close depiction or not, I can’t tell you, but if it is, then not too many things changed until the 1400s.
Are you religious? Are you not? Are you offended easily? Are you open-minded? Are you aware of the apocryphal scriptures? Do you know what the Bible comprises? What is your definition of God? Do you believe there is one? More? Do they have names? Do they care? The film managed to offend Christians and Muslims alike, and was characterised as a blasphemy. Was it its darkness? Holy books inspire fear, chaos, death, war, and the Apocalypse. No film or other book can even remotely match that. So think about it. What is it? The New Testament provided no details about Jesus’s life, and, in Jesus of Nazareth (1977), Franco Zeffirelli painted a beautiful picture of him that has characterised generations.
There will always be even more questions than the ones stated above, but we’ll always be wondering: Was He? Who was He? Has He changed us? If yes, how? Now what?
Thanks for reading!
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Solidarity for all the innocent lives that suffer the atrocities of war!
Stay safe!
