Who wouldn't want to see God..? The Almighty who is the Creator of all of us and everything around, above and below us - including the big and small miseries that engulf us on an everyday basis. While God is generally conceived as an epitome of love, grace and all things wonderful, it is also true that most, if not all of us, on our bad days, would've cursed this very entity for a sadistic streak that piles on the pain on us, the hapless victims.This delightful movie imagines God (Benoît Poelvoorde) to be a nerdy, booze addled and perennially grumpy middle aged guy, living in Brussels, in an high rise apartment which has no doors to the outside world, with his submissive wife (Yolande Moreau) and young daughter. He terrorises his meek wife to such an extent that she hardly ever opens her mouth in his presence and shivers whenever his temper escalates which happens quite frequently. He spends most of his time behind closed doors working at his computer through which he controls the fate of everyone on earth. He finds great amusement in concocting ever new modes of misery to torment the mortals on Earth ranging from a falling toast landing on the wrong side to catastrophes which claim numerous lives.
His daughter, Ea (an endearing Pili Groyne), though, is mischievous and is keen to explore the world outside. She considers her dad as a sadistic boor and hates him for shutting her out of the rest of the world and for his ruthless streak of seeking pleasure by heaping pain on hapless human beings. Egged on by her long lost elder brother JC (Jesus Christ, of course), Ea breaks out of her home. But, before leaving home, she hacks into her dad's computer system and resets the password, thereby locking him out of it. She also reveals the date of death to all the residents of the planet through a celestial SMS which sets off a series of bizarre repercussions across the globe.
After escaping from home, she follows the advice of her elder brother JC and sets out to find six new apostles who would assist her in writing a brand new testament for humanity. She chooses an assorted bunch of persons to be her apostles including a lonely beauty who has lost her arm in a freak accident, a middle aged sex maniac, a corporate worker, a rich and lonely old woman and a young boy diagnosed with terminal illness along with a homeless old beggar who is her designated scribe. The rest of the movie narrates the events of Ea's encounters with this assorted bunch of individuals and creation of a brand new testament even as she is hounded by her dad who wants to regain access to his celestial computer system.
Director Jaco Van Dormael has created a very imaginative and highly irreverent satire which is playful to the extent of being blasphemous. It is quintessentially a feel good feature which is laced with several laugh-out-loud moments including those involving the fate of the God, in hot pursuit of Ea, getting a taste of his own medicine which are especially hilarious. Besides the loads of fun, there is also a distinct feminist undercurrent that runs through the movie which is perfectly cast and well executed.
A co-production between Belgium, France, and Luxembourg, this movie is a manifest testimonial to the levels of artistic freedom prevalent in these countries which have collaborated to produce a movie with such irreverence to contemporary religious beliefs. A movie of this nature is simply unimaginable in most parts of the world which is sinking under a surge of religious bigotry and intolerance. This movie has won many accolades at multiple film festivals across the globe and was also highly appreciated in the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFES), 2016.
Check out this lesser known gem and am sure that you would find yourself laughing out loud and grinning till its entire length. A word of caution though to those of you who are highly conservative and may regard any kind of pun/satire on religious beliefs as highly objectionable - If you are one, then you would do well to skip this flick.
An EXCELLENT WATCH !!
RATING - 3.5/5
Check out this lesser known gem and am sure that you would find yourself laughing out loud and grinning till its entire length. A word of caution though to those of you who are highly conservative and may regard any kind of pun/satire on religious beliefs as highly objectionable - If you are one, then you would do well to skip this flick.
An EXCELLENT WATCH !!
RATING - 3.5/5
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