Last Days in the Desert

Jesus goes into the wilderness for 40 days to seek enlightenment through fasting and prayer. There he is visited by the devil, who wants to shake his trust in God. After long wanderings, Jesus finds a family to take him in. The father is building a house for the family in the wilderness; however, tensions between father and son cloud their relationship because the boy dreams of leaving the wilderness. Jesus wants to help the family by lending a hand with the work, listening to their concerns and desires, and trying to mediate between father and son. The devil turns it into a test in which not only the fate of the family is at stake, but also Jesus' mission as the Son of God. “40 Days in the Desert” tells a story about fathers and sons that could also take place in the present day. The son dreams the dreams that teenagers have been dreaming for 2,000 years: not wasting time, leaving a mark on the world. And he wrestles with the eternal conflict of showing his father the necessary respect while also emancipating himself from him. A conflict that Jesus knows only too well. Whether his heavenly father has as much trouble with his demands on the son as the father of the boy or just plays with people's lives? A blasphemous thought, uttered by the devil in the nightly firelight. (cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki dresses faces and landscapes in beguiling Scope images, once again demonstrating why he is currently one of the best in his field. It is an inhospitable and beautiful corner of the world, where life and death reach out to one another. And there are faces that tell as much about the everyday life of privation in this place as they do about the relationships between people. Lubezki's camera, which is rarely still under the direction of Terrence Malick (The New World, Knight of Cups, among others), Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Gravity, among others) and Alejandro González Iñarritu (Birdman, The Revenant), comes to rest in this place with the characters. We can also immerse ourselves in these wonderfully framed shots, which perfectly distribute the conversation partners on the image planes.” (Falk Straub, on: kino-zeit.de)