"Jesus, the Spirit of God"

In case you thought the world would ever run out of brouhaha, here is Jesus, the Spirit of God, a film (possibly AKA The Messiah) of the story of Jesus told from the Muslim point of view. The film has been in production for ten years by Iranian director Nader Talebzadeh. Jesus is played by Ahmad Soleimani-Nia, an Iranian, who studied at American University and Columbia University in the 1970s. Yes, many of my readers will recall those abundant Iranian students at that time, who loved to wear high-heeled boots and polyester bell-bottom slacks.

Talebzadeh has kept Soleimani-Nia in the character of Jesus for seven years! Some Americans may be pleased to see that Jesus is depicted just as he is in any midwestern, Protestant Sunday school: blonde surfer-dude hair, fair skin, nice beard. He has light brown eyes, though, not blue, so he may not be acceptable in Kansas.

Those who are familiar with Muslim restrictions on the depiction of some holy figures are invited to comment and clarify what those restrictions are. Is it only that Muhammad and his family are not allowed to be portrayed in graven images, or does it apply more broadly to all the Jewish, Moslem and Christian prophets?

The movie — and, BTW, the article doesn't say when it will hit cinema screens in the U.S., although it has shown at some film festivals — is 100-minutes condensed down from a 1,000-minute mini-series that will be broadcast soon on Iranian TV. I hope that at some time the full mini-series will be available on DVD.

The linked L.A. Times article says the $5 million film is rough and choppily edited. But in this review, Rich Drees says:

Technically, the film is put together solidly, though without any real technical flair. The depictions of the miracles performed by Jesus are done simply through some basic editing and the actors' performances. The production design is not that lavish and at times looks like an old 1950s Italian sword and sandals programmer.

OTOH, Mark Cole, whose main concern seems to be how closely the film adheres to the official New Testament story, says:

One of the most dramatic parts of the movie is when he raises Lazurus from the dead, and removes his death mask. He also raises a small boy from the dead. No expense was spared in getting these miracles to look realistic - this movie cost over five million dollars to make.

I'm no expert, but I think $5 million for a film is a fairly small budget. My big Hollywood film studio readers are invited to tell me I'm wrong.

The brouhaha is going to result from the fact that the movie depicts Jesus as a prophet, not a divinity. In this movie he is not crucified. Rather, Jesus just pops up to heaven while Judas is magically transformed into a Jesus look-alike, who gets nabbed and crucified by the Roman soldiers. Oh, that wily Jesus! He is supposed to be the product of a virgin birth in this story, but I guess that all those things that happened in the New Testament after the crucifixion have to be just tossed aside. The gospel of Barnabas is the basis for the Islamic version of the Jesus story.

TLA Video has a page for this film, strongly suggesting that when it's released in the U.S., they'll be doing the distribution.