(ZENIT News / Los Angeles, 03.14.2023) The film, “His Only Son,” about the biblical story of Abraham, will premiere in cinemas in the United States on March 31, the beginning of Holy Week.
The film was produced by Angel Studios, the same company that did “The Chosen,” a narration of Jesus’ life with His disciples, which was very successful, with 420 million screenings worldwide. Jared Geesey, Angel Studios’ spokesman, said about the new production: “We had to take this great story of faith to the screen.”
David Helling, former US marine, is the Director of “His Only Son.” The original idea of the film was the experience he had after passing through Iraq’s desert and sharing biblical stories with the public on the stage of a theatre. Helling believes that the quality of “The Chosen” is comparable to Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of Christ.”
The readings of the Bible he did during his stay in Iraq led him to a clear conclusion: “The Lord gave life to the Bible and I said to myself: I must go to the school of film and learn to tell biblical stories. I spent the last five years doing this film.”
The film has made history even before its premiere, as it is the first film financed collectively with the contributions of many people and distributed in all the cinemas of the United States. Lebanese actor Nicholas Mouawad plays Abraham. Sara Sayem who was born and grew up in Teheran, plays Sarah. Edaan Moskowitz plays the role of Isaac, he is a Jewish-American actor born in California.
The producers followed the biblical guideline, which highlights the powerful event in Abraham’s life, who is willing to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, and expresses the parallelism of Jesus’ surrender on the cross with the ram that Abraham offers to God instead of Isaac, as the biblical text states. The choice of the day of the film’s premiere isn’t accidental, but seeks to enhance the sense of the production.
Neal Harmon, Angel Studios’ CEO, collected the first crowdfunding for the premiere in a large number of cinemas in the whole country, a figure that increases constantly.
