Cast: Jim Caveizel, Monica Bellucci, Claudia Gerini, Maia Morgenstern, Sergio Rubini

Directed By: Mel Gibson

For years man has tried to unravel the story of Jesus. We had the more popular of them all ‘King of Kings’ (1961), The Greatest Story Ever Told’ (1965), ‘Godspell’ (1973), ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ (1975), ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ (1977), the controversial ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ (1988), ‘The Passion’ (2012), not forgetting our own Indianised version ‘Daya Sagar’ (1978).

‘The Passion…’ that focuses on the last twelve hours of Jesus’ life begins in the Garden of Olives and ends with his death on the Cross, with a few flashbacks of his growing up days part of the storyline. It is the most beautiful, profound, accurate, disturbing, realistic and bloody depiction of this well known story that has ever been filmed about Christianity’s founder.

‘The Passion’ has English subtitles to translate the Latin and Aramaic its characters speak.

Portraying Jesus is Jim Caveizel, the dark haired, brown eyed actor who may not fit the archaeological evidence of Jesus, but he comes close.

The chilling moments come in Jesus’ arrest and the brutal flagellation. While the Gospel only mentions the scourging, there is no mention how severe it was, in the movie, it just exceeds the limit, terrifying audiences.

The performances, dazzling cinematography, the sounds, lighting and the soundtrack are deeply stirring. The film has American based Indian double necked violinist L Shankar and Gingger on the musical score of the film.

Gibson put money where his faith is. Whatever the ultimate verdict on Gibson’s ‘Passion…..’ it’s hard not to admire Gibson’s passion. As with all previous films depicting the period, some scholars and theologians will doubtless challenge Gibson’s historical accuracy – indeed he is an actor, not a Biblical scholar. Gibson rarely errs on the production and draws all four Gospels, straying away slightly, but keeping the truth open and bare.

The movie does not preach; it does not try to convince you one way or the other who or what Jesus was. It’s more about the one theme – man’s inhumanity to man.

Rating: *****

Reviewed by Verus Ferreira.