The Parables Retold

"Testament" was filmed on a 50k budget. I love low-budget fantasy, so I thought I'd give it a shot. And interestingly, they made a good series of 5 shorts fit into a coherent whole. And there are enough characters in there to be a good series.

I hope the makers read this, because I intend it as positive feedback for their upcoming series:

We already live in the dystopian future painted in "Testament". If you want the upcoming series to 'hit hard' , do what "Black mirror" does, take a 'topic of the week' (like social media) and turn it up to 11 - to display the dangers it brings to our society (and to Faith in general). To work, a concept like this one can't go half-way. It needs to SLAP.

Testament is self-aware - "A good story can change a life" says a character. The parables ARE evidently good stories, but most people, including atheists, know them by heart (and sometimes dislike them for being so well, "known").

Therefore, whereas "the Chosen" goes courageously off-piste to bring an experience that doesn't feel like Sunday school, Testament ends up doing the opposite - taking a modern day setting to place existing story lines most know by heart - and now we're headed back to Sunday school... NOT enjoyable or bingeable television.

If you're reading this, know that I enjoyed the film and the concept, but I think if you want to be truly successful and go global, you need to:

A) drop the PG rating (The Bible would be rated R if put on film), completely. Opt to make a movie for adults or for children, but not both.

B) forgive the childish 'moral dilemmas of the lady hesitating to return the 20 pound note or becoming straight evil following her lottery winnings. Also, anti-world-government activists are not all nazis, in fact most hate nazis. Also, we're not children.

C) push the parables to their logical extreme to add an element of surprise while staying true to the "goals" of the material, NOT the material itself. I mean, a parable of a treasure is not a parable of a treasure if you know.. there's an actual 'pirate booty'-style treasure in it.

D) drop the black/white morality of it all. The Bible is a brilliant text because even in the book of Jobs it is said not to turn God's teachings into 'simple allegories'. And sadly, this falls into the 'too simple' category.

E) make the cops, cops. They aren't temple guards anymore, they're called 'police'. And to create a paramilitary wing of a non-descript 'authority' doesn't really feel 'modern'. A 'ministry of truth' would link orwellian concepts to the distopian present quite well, sprinkled with some 'brave new world' ignorant blissfulness.

As for 'the adversary', I REALLY liked the "Mr Smith" element of it, but it was let down by his lack of on-screen presence I'm afraid, which isn't helped by the the poor sound recording and make him feel well... not very 'threatening'.

5/10 - Good effort and I look forward to see where this is going next.

I found this quite by accident through Angel Studios, whom I was familiar with because of The Chosen series, which is also highly recommended.

Set in a (not so distant?) dystopian future, it follows Luke as he's writing the Gospel of Luke and, through his experiences that will become, the Book of Acts in the Bible. Of course, like the aforementioned series, some liberties are taken as action and conversations that do not appear in (or have been updated from) Holy Scripture are included.

Luke and his Biblical companions - members of the Way including Mary Magdalene, James, Barnabas, John Mark and Peter - are on the run or in hiding from the authorities who want to stop the proliferation of any information about Jesus and His teachings. While in flight, five of Jesus's Parables are told, also in modern contexts:

The Sower, The Good Samaritan, The Hidden Treasure, The Talents and The Rich Fool

I'm not sure how I feel about the dystopian environment but am interested in seeing how it plays out, e.g. How well the characters will be developed as in The Chosen, but the Parables are fantastic, every one of them!

I struggle to write this review as I really wanted this movie to excel like other Angel offerings.

The basic premise is fantastic. Put Luke and the other disciples in the modern, though slightly distopian era.

Sadly, the result is slow and is a bit all other the place. I failed to engage in any of the characters.

As others have noted, the modern retelling of the parables is so progressive, it at times appears to diminish the divine.

As a positive, I appreciate that this was a UK production.

I really want to encourage Angel in their endeavours, but this one just misfires. Overall, acting is good, it isn't cheesy, it is fundamentally too long and at the end I'm not sure where we actually landed.

This is well written, well acted, and well directed - not to be unfair, but all that came as a surprise after I'd read that it was made with $50k.

Overall it's a very talented retelling of biblical parables in a modern setting, which should appeal to broad audiences. The tone is somewhat dark and heavy, but probably appropriate when you consider the persecution of the early church. The dialogue is solid and there's enough action to keep you watching from one parable to the next.

I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do with a bigger budget and the time to develop the characters further in a series format.

We enjoyed the retellings of some of Jesus' parables. They were just different enough to keep us guessing, but they conveyed the points well. And it was interesting to see a modernized idea of the early church.

There were two scenes that might be too intense for children - one of a dead woman and another with a man who is badly beaten. Parents may want to watch before showing it to their kids.

The acting was well done. The story was creative. I would be interested in checking out the Testament series that is supposed to be coming out soon.

It's really encouraging to see people finding new ways for telling stories about Jesus through film.

We are also impressed with the fact that this movie was created on such a low budget. Looking forward to more work from this team. Keep up the good work!