The Brand New Testament

And on the first day he created Brussels. All at once, the grey city comes to life with giraffes and ostriches, but the real fun begins when God introduces a somewhat shabby-looking Adam – perhaps because Van Dormael’s God is no athlete or thinker: on the contrary, he looks a bit like a caricature of a down-and-out barfly. He sits at his computer in a dirty undershirt, smoking and drinking and taking perverse pleasure in human suffering. One day, however, his ten-year-old daughter runs out of patience and uses daddy’s computer to send every mortal his or her day of death. She then flees the family nest in order to find six new apostles. The Brand New Testament is a wellspring of Van Dormael’s typical fantastic ideas and other hallmarks: a story told from a child’s perspec­tive, the tangible presence of death, and the conflict between fate and free will. Van Dormael combines these factors with precision camerawork to create a fresh cinematic spectacle.