Sunday 17 April 2016

The Brand New Testament (film review)

God is alive and lives in a flat in Brussels, where he spends his time watching the world through an old computer screen and inventing laws to annoy people, laws such as 'the bread will always fall butter side down'.

After hacking into God's computer and texting everyone in the world with their date of death, Ea, his daughter escapes the family home and sets out to gather her own apostles to create a brand new testament. She's more interested in her apostles telling their own stories and finding themselves and being true to their 'inner music' than she is in them gathering around her. For example, her second apostle is a man who hates his job, who when he finds out the date of his death decides to sit on a park bench for the rest of his life until he has a conversation with a starling (with Ea interpreting) who encourages him to travel north until he finds the meaning of his life.

The whole film makes the viewer ponder the questions 'How would our lives change if we knew for definite the day we would die?' and 'what would happen if the women were in charge?' It's an insightful, thought provoking and entertaining film, well worth watching.


The Brand New Testament is showing at Edinburgh Filmhouse until Thursday 21 April.

2 comments:

sage said...

Knowing the date of our death would change us, I'm sure. More importantly might be to know the manner by which we die.

RG said...

It makes for an interesting subject to consider. But life does not work like that so it is hard for me to even think about.