Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) 2022 presents
The New Gospel
by Milo Rau /IIPM & NTGent
Country: Germany | Running Time: 106 | Language: Italian | Year Of Release: 2020
About The New Gospel
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 the most influential prophet and social revolutionary in human history? With “The new Gospel”, Milo Rau is staging a “Revolt of Dignity”. Led by political activist Yvan Sagnet, the movement is fighting for the rights of migrants who came to Europe across the Mediterranean to be enslaved on the tomato fields in Italy.
“For nearly 20 years now, I have dealt with the contradictions of the global economy as well as the role Europe plays in it through plays, films and books. In the “Europe Trilogy” (2014-16), the stories of actors from 13 countries, from Belgium to Russia to Kurdistan and Syria, were put together and formed a European story – a “political psychoanalysis of our continent” (Libération) for which we held castings from Erbil to Jerusalem and Athens to Brussels and Paris. For the movie “The Congo Tribunal” (2017), I created a global economy tribunal in the East Congolese civil war zone, where European and Canadian commodity companies are driving away hundreds of thousands of people under the eyes of the UN. Miners and managers, rebels and government politicians answered questions from a jury of national and international lawyers. The project, which was nominated for the Swiss as well as the German Film Academy Award, led to the dismissal of two ministers and even the governor of the Congolese mining province of South Kivu.
With THE NEW GOSPEL I now bring together both types of projects: the large- scale criticism of an unjust world order in which Europe plays a central role; and working with a layperson ensemble and their stories and biographies, which emerged from a wide and extensive casting. In addition, there is a long lasting interest in the imagery of the Bible, which I have already dealt with in my Pasolini adaptation “The 120 Days of Sodom” (2017, Schauspielhaus Zurich), my large-scale faith project “The Ghent Altarpiece” (2018, NT Gent), as well as in “Empire” (2016, Schaubühne Berlin), the third part of the “Europe Trilogy” with Maia Morgenstern, who played the role of Maria in Mel Gibson’s bibliographic film “The Passion of the Christ”.
When southern Italian Matera was appointed as the “European Capital of Culture 2019”, 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” version of the New Testament where Pasolini and Mel Gibson did the 2 most-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 inofficial camps.
What an irony, that Matera, the European Capital of Culture and „Jerusalem“ of world cinema is surrounded by refugee camps. Where would the contradictions of modern Europe be more visible than here and what would make more sense than shooting a political Jesus movie in this incredibly beautiful and poor region, mixing biblical iconography and real revolt?” – Milo Rau
THE NEW GOSPEL
WITH YVAN SAGNET, PAPA LATYR FAYE, SAMUEL JACOBS, YUSSIF BAMBA, JEREMIAH AKHERE OGBEIDE, MBAYE NDAYE, KADIR ALHAJI NASIR, ALI SOUMAILA, VITO CASTORO, MARIE ANTOINETTE EYANGO, ANTHONY NWACHUKWU, MOHAMMED SOULEIMAN, ALEXANDER KWAKU MARFO AND MANY OTHERS
AND MARCELLO FONTE, ENRIQUE IRAZOQUI, MAIA MORGENSTERN
CONCEIVED, WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY MILO RAU
PRODUCERS ARNE BIRKENSTOCK, OLIVIER ZOBRIST, SEBASTIAN LEMKE
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY THOMAS EIRICH-SCHNEIDER
DRAMATURGY & EDITING KATJA DRINGENBERG
DRAMATURGY & CONCEPT EVA-MARIA BERTSCHY
DRAMATURGY & ASSISTANT DIRECTOR GIACOMO BISORDI
SOUND MARCO TEUFEN
WITH THE VOICE AND THE SONGS OF VINICIO CAPOSSELA
SET DESIGN & COSTUMES ANTON LUKAS
A production of Fruitmarket, Langfilm & IIPM – International Institute of Political Murder in coproduction with SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen / SRG SSR, ZDF in cooperation with ARTE, in collaboration with Fondazione Matera Basilicata 2019, Consorzio Teatri Uniti di Basilicata and Teatro di Roma
supported by Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, BAK Bundesamt für Kultur, Zürcher Filmstiftung, DFFF – Deutscher Filmförderfonds, Kanton St.Gallen Kulturförderung / Swisslos, BKM – Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung fur Kultur und Medien, Volkart Stiftung, Suissimage Kulturfonds
About Milo Rau /IIPM & NTGent
Milo Rau, born 1977 in Bern (CH), is director, writer and since the 2018/19 season artistic director of NTGent (Belgium). Critics call him the “most influential” (Die Zeit), “most awarded” (Le Soir), “most interesting” (De Standaard), “most controversial” (La Repubblica), “most scandalous” (New York Times) or “most ambitious” (The Guardian) artist of our time. Since 2002 he has published over 50 plays, films, books and actions. His productions were shown at all major international festivals.
About The Festival
The Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) is an annual event showcasing films drawn from the world of theatre and performance. The festival presents experimental, emerging, and established theatre artists and filmmakers from around the world to audiences and industry professionals. The 7th annual festival will focus on work for the screen created by theatre artists during the Time of Corona. The festival will be held digitally from March 1st – 15th 2022.
Watch The New Gospel from March 1st to March 15th 2022 on the Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) website.
Support this film by Milo Rau /IIPM & NTGent by making a direct donation to them at the following details:
Read more about Milo Rau /IIPM & NTGent and The New Gospel at (https://dasneueevangelium.de) or get in touch at arne.birkenstock@fruitmarket.de /
For more visit:
- https://businessdoceurope.com/idfa-feature-length-competition-review-the-new-gospel/
- https://businessdoceurope.com/venice-competition-interview-the-new-gospel-by-milo-rau/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/15/movies/a-director-asks-would-jesus-stand-with-todays-migrants.html?smid=url-share
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/10/movies/milo-rau-the-new-gospel.html?smid=url-share
- https://filmmakermagazine.com/110251-as-a-director-i-want-to-show-my-own-failure-my-own-intrusion-in-the-films-i-make-milo-rau-on-his-venice-premiering-the-new-gospel/#.Yf_Ogy24h24
- https://cineuropa.org/en/video/392214/
