La Vie de Jésus


La vie de Jésus is the 1997 debut feature film by director Bruno Dumont. It was the winner of the prestigious BFI Sutherland Trophy, the Prix Jean Vigo and European Discovery of the Year at the European Film Awards, as well as the special mention for Camera d’Or at Cannes.
Freddy, who is unemployed with learning difficulties and epilepsy, drives around on a motorbike and experiences his first sexual encounters in the rather depressing fields of the countryside of northern France. When the handsome immigrant Kader flirts with Freddy's girlfriend cashier Marie, Freddy plans to take revenge.

Controversy

Dumont included extreme close-ups of penetration in The Life of Jesus to emphasize the animal nature of the sex act, which takes place outdoors in a field. In order to keep a natural feel and atmosphere, the director deliberately used non-professional actors. Freddy and the other boys' sexual assault on a girl, also made for uncomfortable viewing. Dumont seemed to portray general pack behaviour as predatory, territorial and base, particularly among the younger males - with the elders of the village acting as a communal control but only as a last resort. Dumont's main aim was to maintain a gritty sense of realism, about both the subject matter and questioning the social fabric in a modern context.

Home video release