Jesus of Montreal 1989

In Montreal, Daniel Coulombe, an unknown actor, is hired by a Roman Catholic pilgrimage site known as le sanctuaire to present a passion play in its gardens. The priest, Gilles Pelletier as Fr. Leclerc, asks him to “modernize” the classic script the church has been using, which he considers dated.

modernize

Daniel is inspired and undertakes intensive research, consulting archaeology to check the historicity of Jesus and drawing on supposed information on Jesus in the Talmud, using the Talmud name Yeshua Ben Pantera for Jesus, whom he portrays. He includes arguments that the biological father of Jesus was a Roman soldier who left Palestine shortly after impregnating the unwed Mary. He assembles his cast from individuals with dubious backgrounds (one being a man who does pornographic voiceovers) and moves in with two of them, Johanne-Marie Tremblay as Constance and Catherine Wilkening as Mireille.

When the play is performed, the audience is thrilled; the show receives excellent reviews. The priest regards it as controversial and an affront to official Catholic doctrine. He angrily distances himself from Daniel, while the actor’s life becomes more complicated as he dives deeper into the project. During one of Mireille’s auditions, Mireille is told to remove her top, causing an outburst from Daniel in which he damages equipment and assaults a director, resulting in criminal charges. The tensions grow as church authorities object to his interpretation of Jesus, and security forces move to stop a performance, placing the production at odds with both the religious establishment and the public.

Daniel’s story takes a darker turn as he is injured in an ensuing accident and is carried away by ambulance. He is taken first to an overrun Catholic hospital, where he faces neglect, then to the Jewish General Hospital after he collapses on a Montreal Metro platform. Despite the doctors’ rapid and dedicated efforts, he is pronounced brain dead. His doctors seek consent from his friends to donate his organs, explaining that he might have been saved had he arrived sooner. With his death, his eyes and heart go on to help other patients.

In the wake of this tragedy, Daniel’s friends come together to form a theatre company, determined to carry on his work and keep his vision alive, channeling their grief into art and community. The film closes on a note of resilience, as a group of artists shapes a new collective out of loss, memory, and the power of performance.