The New Gospel (Das Neue Evangelium)

Germany, Switzerland, Italy 2020, 107'
Directed by: Milo Rau

Cankarjev dom Cinema The New Gospel (Das Neue Evangelium)

Screenplay by: Milo Rau
Cinematography: Thomas Eirich-Schneider
Music by: Vinicio Capossela, Elia Rediger
Cast: Yvan Sagnet, Maia Morgenstern, Enrique Irazoqui, Marcello Fonte
Production: Fruitmarket, Langfilm, IIPM

What would Jesus preach in the 21st century? Who would his disciples be? And how would today’s bearers of secular and spiritual power respond to the return and provocations of one of the most influential prophets and social revolutionaries in human history? Set in the southern Italian town of Matera, where both Pasolini and Gibson shot their legendary films on the life of Jesus, director Milo Rau returns to the origins of the gospel and stage it as a passion play of an entire civilization. Together with Cameroonian political activist Yvan Sagnet, Rau creates a biblical story that couldn’t be more topical.

When southern Italian Matera was appointed as the “European Capital of Culture 2019”, I was asked to do a staging in the city. I immediately had a concept in mind: a new Jesus film, mixing the strong cinematographic tradition of the region with its modern reality. My proposal to do “my own” version of the New Testament where Pasolini and Mel Gibson made the two best-known Jesus films of all time, mixing professional actors with activists, immediately met with open ears from the curators. When I went there the first time, the exceptional antique peace of the city convinced me immediately to shoot a Jesus movie here. The aim was to maintain its original spirit as a Passion story of the socially underprivileged, the poor, the unemployed, the outcasts, the marginalized and the refugees. In Italy alone, more than 500,000 people live underground in unofficial camps.
Milo Rau

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