Pinnacle Peak Pictures, the studio behind The Case for Christ and God’s Not Dead, has released a new film just in time for Easter: The Last Supper. Directed by Mauro Borrelli and filmed in Morocco, it will appear on American screens starting March 14. Jamie Ward stars as Jesus, Robert Knepper as Judas, and James Oliver Wheatley as Peter. Other stars include Charlie MacGechan as John and James Faulkner as a terrifyingly clever and cunning Caiaphas.
The film begins with Peter in a melancholy mood: “I was once a fisherman, content to keep up with the tides… but He made me a fisher of men.” We are immediately plunged into the year 30 AD, with Jesus’ ministry in full swing along the shores of the Sea of Galilee. As the sun sets, we see the disciples urging Jesus to send the people away to fend for themselves, but, as we know, He has other ideas.
Director: Mauro Borrelli
Writers: Mauro Borrelli, John Collins
Stars: Robert Knepper, James Faulkner, Jamie Ward
We then witness the unfolding of the scene from Matthew 14, where the Lord feeds the five thousand with five loaves and two fish, demonstrating what Bishop Robert Barron so aptly calls “the cycle of grace,” where to keep what one has one must give it freely.
The camera follows Peter as he makes his way through the vast, undulating crowd. His sense of wonder increases as he begins to understand what is happening—that he himself is somehow being used as an instrument of grace—as more and more people avail themselves of the infinite bounty of the loaves and fish.
It is dusty and still hot; The people are hungry and tired, but they are also encouraged, somehow aware that they are in the presence of something incomprehensible and strange, and yet when the camera focuses on Jesus again, the very simplicity of the scene is immensely revealing. There is no king on a throne here with serried ranks of slaves doing his bidding; just a young, bearded man moving through the crowd, serving them Himself and speaking to them.
When night finally falls, Peter mentions Judas’s problem to Christ. “His internal struggles worry me,” he says, which is an interesting interpretation of the other apostles’ view of him. We then see Judas encouraging Jesus to rise up against the Romans, demonstrating how far he is from understanding, even a little, what he is really a part of. Admittedly, he has this in common with the other disciples, and yet we see the very imperfect Peter making an effort to understand what is happening, even if he does not fully understand it.
Robert Knepper plays Judas with great subtlety; allowing the viewer to witness his internal struggles is a great way to draw us into the narrative.
A year later, we are in Jerusalem. It is Palm Sunday; Jesus has entered the holy city on a donkey and soon after is wreaking havoc in the temple courtyards by violently overturning the moneylenders’ tables. Sheep are running absentmindedly back and forth; panicked birds are flapping their wings and squawking, creating clouds of dust and a shower of coins; people are shouting and cursing at Jesus, who is taking refuge in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Caiaphas plans his moves as carefully as a chess grandmaster: “We need someone to walk beside him,” he says. He manages to get close to Judas, who is fascinated by the jingling of money in Caiaphas’ hand. Although he tries to resist the temptation, we can see from the presence of a very long and dangerous-looking snake slithering through the straw in the room they are in that all is lost.
And then to the Upper Room: the washing of the feet, the meaning of which has to be thoroughly explained by Jesus to his apostles, even at this late hour, followed by a detailed presentation of the Last Supper. John, the favourite disciple, understands what Christ means; the others remain bewildered and frightened.
The arrest of Christ is violent and dramatic; and although we see Jesus being scourged, we do not see his interrogation by Pilate or the crucifixion. Next we see Peter emerging from prison and listening to the story told to him by John. There is a wonderful moment when Caiaphas, gloriously bedecked, learns that Jesus' body has disappeared; his obvious shock is gratifying and underlines the fact that a new order is being established, outside the control of the old temple system.
The film ends where it began, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Peter is forgiven by Christ and finally understands his mission, his dawning understanding brilliantly portrayed by James Oliver Wheatley. The journey is over and a new one begins.
The director is proud of the film's theological accuracy, but I was especially taken with the immersive, visual quality of the film.
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