Son of Man

Modern update of the Jesus story set in 21st century South Africa. Overall, it's a good film. The music is excellent. The acting, directing, and cinematography is good too. Some aspects of the film work better than others, but overall a worthwhile film.

After watching this film you might wish the entire world just watched it with you. I sure felt that way. I saw the film at the Traverse City Film Festival without knowing much about it going in and was completely blown away. It tells the story of Jesus Christ in modern day South Africa, and beyond the gut-wrenching day-to-day experiences of these people, the use of colors and music all combine to create a truly amazing film. There were many great performances, but I was particularly impressed and moved by the performance of Pauline Malefane, who played the character paralleling Mary, Mother of Jesus. I intend to see U-Carmen because of how moving her performance was in Son of Man. Mark Donford-May (writer/director/producer of both films) has found a goldmine of talent, fortunately he recognizes this and appears to doing his best to share it with the rest of the world - if they will only open their eyes to see it, or even be given the opportunity to do so.

The captions were unreadable to me (small fonts that were out-of-focus and without sufficient contrast) and I do not speak Xhosa which is unfortunate because I had been looking forward to watching this portrayal of the teachings of Jesus (and taking in more than sound/music and moving images from the scenes I sampled before my frustration level peaked and I skipped ahead to the final credits). Many reviewers at Netflix (I watched their streaming version of this title) appeared to dislike this film because it does not align itself with their particular brand of so-called Christianity (and why is that such a bad thing?). From the scenes I did watch, this production appeared to be a noble attempt to portray a geographically-specific interpretation of the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth with more emphasis on what He taught as opposed to what many modern churches teach their blind followers to believe (and a lot of that having nothing to do with the ONLY concept Jesus ever preached, namely, the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man). So it was encouraging to find a positive review for this movie here (one that was written over four years ago). So even if I don't learn the Xhosa language anytime soon (and it's not on my list of things to do), perhaps I'll go back and watch this movie once again and I'll pretend I am just a foreigner there (a stranger in a strange land) witnessing a lot that I don't understand but some that I do even when spoken in the clicks of Bantu.

One of the best "modern" interpretations of the gospels (out of over 20 I have seen)!!! Really shows the brutality of Rome, as it was so similar to ills of modern Africa, with regard to apartheid, boka haram, and child soldiers, et al of the sons of satan. Xhosa is a beautiful language but I had no trouble with English subtitles on my Fire tablet. (Found it on Easter after 3 episodes of 'The Chosen' left me seeking a better venue for the reenactment of MY LORD'S ministry.

PLEASE WATCH AND PRAY FOR ALL OF AFRICA TO BE DELIVERED FROM satan's GRASP!!! Just an excellent project in so many ways!!! Thank you all who contributed to it and may GOD BLESS ALL!!!

This is the most theologically innovative Jesus film I've ever seen. The setting is 21st century Africa so having a non-white, non-English speaking, non-British Jesus already breaks the mold for most films about Christ. The music is beautiful, the acting choices are inspired, and while some scenes work better than others, the film captures the heart of the message of the gospel better than any big budget film about Jesus that I've ever seen. Simply put, it's awesome!