If you have a taste for strange, different kind of humor, then The Brand New Testament (Le tout nouveau testament) is for you. God lives in Brussels with his wife and 10 years old daughter, in an apartment without windows or doors. He is a bad husband and father, and spend his time having fun with his human and nature creations, creating laws and disasters. One day his daughter has access to his computer...It is a comedy where you have dense characters, and no one laughs, only you. You will find connection between all little elements and actions of the movie, and that is geniously amazing!Just go and see it!

Brand New Testament: Durban International Film Festival Belgium: 2015 Review by Dr Deena PadayacheeI think that most of us have wondered about the All Mighty (plural?) that plays with our lives and creates havoc everywhere. I've often thought about those brilliant Germans who created such gorgeous classical music, who tend to be so organised and are so efficient and manufacture such exceptional machinery, yet allowed a Hitler to rule them and eviscerate them.Anyway, this is a delightful, rather human depiction of a 'God' who plays on the computer with people's lives. It is this 'God' that ensures that the phone rings when we are in the shower, that the jam bread tends to fall on the jam side on the floor and so on. :) 'God' is middle aged, has a mouse of a wife, (who is for ever vacuuming), and a little spunky daughter, Ea, who, in true earthling fashion, questions everything. 'God' is a rather grouchy old man who bullies his family and even beats the daughter. 'JC' is the the girl's brother. We all know about his fate. Ea lets the the people of the planet know of their time of demise - via sms, nogaal! Most of the people depicted are white. Imagine exiting this divine abode via a washing machine! 'God' actually gets hungry, and gets ill, eating from rubbish bins! Ea sabotages the computer and escapes - and writes a new testament while recruiting a motley crew of six apostles. They include an abandoned house wife, a sex maniac, a serial killer, a beauty who has lost her arm and so on. There is much that happens in life that one should question, examine and even refute and sometimes lampoon. I am glad that there are human beings still willing to do so, and others who are not offended when some do so.

I was looking forward for this since it was from one of my favourite directors who is a very unique storyteller. This is a fantasy and a black comedy from Belgium that was chosen to represent the country in the last Oscars. This is where the critics overtake the film fanatic to like it more. It is a theme that revolves on what would you do if you get a power to write the laws of the nature. A complicated topic, because loopholes are inevitable, but the writer and director did not care much about that and narrated the tale what they just wanted to tell.The story centres on an arrogant and abusive father who is also the creator the universe, especially the designer of the lives on the earth and this tale takes place in the Belgian capital, Brussels. When his bored and concerned daughter Ea, runs away from home to re-edit his creation as advised by her brother JC, he goes after her to ensure everything stay as he had planned. In an unexpected confrontation between father and daughter, in the end who is going to be victorious is the rest of the narration. Remember, there is a post credit scene, which opens the door for a possible sequel, but I don't think that'll happen."Giving men knowledge of their own death... Crazy!"It was a beautiful concept, but I don't think I liked the entire narration, though some of the parts were very interesting. Since it was a fantasy, logics are not required, but the lack of the basic explanation was the setback if you're a broad minded. This film is for the simple minds, especially after knowing the theme you should not anticipate a genuine tale with great adventure and stunts, particularly not visual extravaganza. It was kind of a drama-adventure, something like entering the world that created by you and experiencing all by yourself the positives and negatives of it.Somewhat it was a fun, so definitely not a bad film, but I felt it should have been a lot more than that. Kind of a missed opportunity and falls into a simplicity. All the actors were good, especially the little girl. But I think it's not suitable for the children on the ground of a film character who is associated with sex related stuff, hence it got a few brief nudes.The God character was awesome, even though his acts are predictable I enjoyed the comedies delivered by him. The Ea's undertaking was more a serious and which tries to relate with the Chritianity, especially 'The Last Supper' after her decision to help a few selected people down in the earth over billions. All the above it was barely a magical film, so that's where you've to compromise than to expect crazy stuffs out of it. So in my opinion, it was not delightful as it looks nor the best work of this talented director, but a decent 2 hour long film.6/10

... is as good a way as any to summarize this bizarre Belgian entry. It's from the same stable as Le Huitieme jour, which I enjoyed. Whilst the eighth day was more or less straightforward however the brand new testament is completely off the wall. The basic premise is that God is alive and well and living in Brussels and if it had been funded by the Brexit factor it couldn't have done a better job of encouraging England to get the hell out of Europe come the referendum. For reasons best known to himself God is a triple-distilled son of a bitch who takes a perverse delight in making people miserable. Mrs. God - the superb Yolande Moreau who is allotted far too little screen time - is a great hand at collecting baseball cards and is convinced that what the word needs now is 18 (two baseball teams) Apostles rather than the twelve with which our Lord made do so when God's daughter hacks into his computer the first thing she does is to appoint another six. And there you have it. This is one of those all-or-nothing movies, if you like it you'll love it, if you don't like it you'll loathe it. The choice is yours.