Details

Release year: 1989

Storyline

A group of actors put on an unorthodox, but acclaimed Passion Play which incites the opposition of the Catholic Church while the actors' lives themselves begin to mirror the Passion itself.

Top credits

Directors

Denys Arcand

Writers

Denys Arcand

Cast

Lothaire Bluteau — Daniel Coulombe
Catherine Wilkening — Mireille
Johanne-Marie Tremblay — Constance Lazure
Rémy Girard — Martin

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Awards

0 wins & 1 nomination

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Did you know

• The film tracks the life of Christ in several specific ways: -The actor at the beginning, praised for his performance, turns and says that Daniel is a much better actor. This is a reference to John the Baptist as the herald of Christ. -A female producer says she wants the same actor's head for her magazine, a reference to Herod wanting John the Baptist dead. His head then appears in a poster ad in a subway where Daniel dies. -Daniel overturns the equipment at the commercial shoot, a reference to Christ's cleansing of the temple. -Daniel is arrested and the indecisive judge cannot find anything wrong with him, a reference to Pilate's judgment. -A lawyer plans great things for Daniel and shows him the world from a skyscraper, a reference to the temptation in the desert. -After Daniel dies, his organs are transplanted into 3 different people, a reference to Christ as the redeemer.

• More instances that mirror the life of Christ as recorded in the Gospels: - Daniel recruits actors to work with him similar to the way Jesus recruited his disciples. The first, Constance, is found working charitably in a soup kitchen, and Daniel says simply, "I came for you." - The judge (like Pilate) sends Daniel to a second-opinion person (the psychologist is like Herod) who finds nothing wrong with him and sends him back to the judge/Pilate.

• Ron Lea, who plays Daniel's doctor at the end of the film, also served as the voice of Daniel himself in the English dub of the film.