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2011 · 9m · Japón
Directed by Barry Cook
Genres: animation, drama, historical
Tones: contemplative, dark, mythic
An animated retelling of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ from the perspective of one of the thieves crucified beside him, based on the 1979 film Jesus.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Reframing Christ's crucifixion through a thief's eyes *should* be sacrilegious enough to matter, but Cook's reverential animation style defangs the premise—it's subversive in concept only, which is the kind of compromise that makes contrarians weep.
A formally disciplined reworking of Scorsese's source material that understands its own lineage; the choice to animate rather than live-act this apocryphal moment transforms it into genuine religious art, meditative and uncompromising in its visual restraint.
The decision to render the crucifixion in muted, almost stained-glass animation forces the thief's spiritual crisis into pure visual language—no dialogue crutch, just movement and negative space doing the theological heavy lifting on a modest budget.