Movie Review: "The Last Supper" (2025)

The Last Supper

Director: Mauro Borrelli

Producer: Shawn Boskie, Ivan Cohen, Manu Gargi, Ken Halsband, Michael Scott

Screenplay: Mauro Borrelli, John Collins

Cinematographer: Vladislav Opelyants

Music: Leonardo De Bernardini

Starring: Jamie Ward as Jesus Christ, Robert Knepper as Judas Iscariot, James Faulkner as Caiaphas, James Oliver Wheatley as Peter

Production Company: Pinnacle Peak Pictures, Canyon Productions, Wellspring Entertainment, Skyrun Pictures

Country: United States

Initial release: March 14, 2025

Run Time: 114 minutes

Creators of Film "Man of God" Currently Working on New Film "Moses the Black"

On the heels of the success of Man of God, the English-speaking international hit on the life of the Greek saint Nektarios of Aegina, with a cast of acclaimed actors, including Golden Globe winner Mickey Rourke, writer-director-producer Yelena Popovic and producer Alexandros Potter recently launched Simeon Faith, a fund that will finance and produce talent-driven, highly marketable films with strong elements of faith for a global audience. Simeon Faith is backed by a network of cinephiles and investors that recognize the importance of investing in impactful content in a media-dominated world.

The fund aims to develop, finance and produce one to two films per year over the next four years, with a focus on hard-hitting, relevant and meaningful stories that will bring the lives of the saints and messages of faith to the big screen. The first film on the slate currently in development is Moses the Black, a story of a gangster in modern-day Chicago inspired by the incredible story of repentance of the fourth century saint of the same name. You can learn more about Saint Moses the Black here.

Fyodor Dostoevsky's Meeting With Archbishop Nicholas Kasatkin the Missionary of Japan

By Michael K. Makrakis

Although Dostoevsky was born in Moscow (30 October 1821), he spent his life in St. Petersburg since May 1837 changing many times his place of abode. His last address was on Kuznechny Lane, near the Church of Vladimirskaya. This is where he received the invitation of the Society of the Friends of Russian Literature to attend the unveiling of the Pushkin bust in Moscow and give a speech. It was April-May of 1880. Dostoevsky was then writing his last book "The Brothers Karamazov". Although he did not want to interrupt his work, his huge love for Pushkin made him finally decide to travel to Moscow.

He left on 22 May. His wife, Anna Grigoryevna, who accompanied him to the station, begged him to write to her every day describing all the details. This is why he composed the letters covering the period he stayed in Moscow: from the next day of his arrival (23-24 May) until the 8th of June, 1880, the day he gave the speech for Pushkin. This speech caused so much upheaval that it was characterised as a true "historical fact". As he writes in one of his letters (13 June 1880) after his speech "the people started sobbing and embracing one another swearing to be better in the future."

The Fundamentalism of “Political Correctness”

The Fundamentalism of “Political Correctness”

December 15, 2024

By Metropolitan Amphilochios of Kissamos and Selino

I read somewhere and I agree that in our times we are experiencing a form of “democratic” dictatorship against thought and expression. It is about the one-sided interpretation, according to one's whim, of the term “politically correct”. It is obvious, commonplace and self-evident that no one has the right and can insult or commit wrongdoing against diversity (political, social, gender, religion, origin, language, etc.), as any form of legitimacy of the different that leads to racism which is reprehensible and unacceptable. After all, the rejection of the different, because it is different, is a manifestation of racist behavior and mentality.

And while we agree on the need to protect the correct everyday behavior of citizens, within the framework of the favored state, what is strange and difficult to understand, much less accept, and raises many questions, is the fact that, as far as Christianity is concerned, the term "politically correct" seems to be unknown or rather not applicable by all those who defend its correctness and necessity. When, for example, works of art, films, posters, cartoons and everything else are employed by modern bad craftsmen of our times, who disrespect and ridicule the sacred symbols of the faith of Christ (the symbol of the Cross, the sacred face of the Virgin Mary, the face of Christ, etc.), with the aim and goal of deconstructing the faith, then not only is the logic of "political correctness" not applied, but anyone who raises a different discourse, point of view, opinion and voice, from that which serves "political correctness", is targeted and attacked as an alleged "dark-minded", "homophobic", "Christian Talibanist", etc., by all its defenders.

Actress Juliette Binoche Acclaims Saint Paisios the Athonite and Byzantine Iconography In Award Speech

The 65th Thessaloniki Film Festival welcomed two of the most prolific stars of contemporary cinema, Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes, on Friday, November 1st 2024, at the Olympion theater. The two renowned actors received the Festival’s honorary Golden Alexander award prior to the screening of the monumental film The English Patient (1996), which marked their second collaboration (their first was in 1992's Wuthering Heights) and garnered Juliette Binoche an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and Ralph Fiennes a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

The thank you speech of Juliette Binoche was particularly interesting for Greek Orthodox Christians, because she opened with the following words:

"Your skies and seas are an inspiration in my life - in our lives. Your words and thoughts through Sophocles, Homer, the great philosophers and the saints, especially Saint Paisios, are feeding my path and heart. Thank you for what you give to the world (applause). I had the most amazing day today in Thessaloniki (applause). Visiting your monasteries, walking in your streets, feeling your stones and trees and eating your bread, fish and vegetables and admiring your Byzantine Treasures, like icons. What a beautiful journey!"

 

A few years ago in Greece a former MP Petros Tatsopoulos caused a major uproar when he publicly mocked a Greek tv series based on the life of Saint Paisios the Athonite as a work of fiction, since it portrays him working miracles and having visions, which he does not believe in, and he criticized such depictions as keeping Greeks in the Middle Ages. Now, just a few days ago, a renowned foreign actress from France received a prestigious award in Greece, and not only acclaimed Saint Paisios, but put him and other Orthodox Christian saints in succession with Sophocles and Homer, and with them spoke of her admiration for the monasteries of Thessaloniki and the treasures of Byzantium, especially its iconography. Essentially she sees the ancient Greek spirit and Orthodox Christianity are an unbroken historical continuity that proclaims the greatness of Greece to the world. And this isn't just an ordinary actress saying this, but Juliette Binoche is the first actress to win the European "Best Actress Triple Crown" (winning the Best Actress awards at the Berlin, Cannes & Venice film festivals), as well as the previously mentioned Academy Award, among many others.