This is the most famous story in the world: The life and times of Jesus of Nazareth from his birth to his death.

The story is told through the places where he lived and preached, through the art of the last 2000 years, and through the words of the evangelists. It follows the birth of Christianity as it spread through Paul’s and Peter’s teachings. It explores the great landmarks of their journey from Palestine to Cyprus where Paul was imprisoned, Greece, where he taught under the shadow of Acropolis and finally Rome where Peter was martyred.

When we travel through the land of Israel, we feel and breathe the unique power that this land has had on mankind through the centuries; we see the sites of Moses and the prophets of the Old Testament and we see the sites scared to the history of Christianity. We also see the overlapping roots of Christianity, Judaism and the Muslim world as they all unfolded in this small stretch of land poised between East and West.

Jesus not only taught in temples, but outdoors, in synagogues and villages around Judea and Samaria, he traveled to the desert where he withdrew for 50 days, he was baptized in Lake Galilee, a land of green woods and orchards. He walked the shores of the lake and found his fishermen, his future disciples there. He walked the streets of Jerusalem as a child, returned there as an adult to preach, and ultimately to be tried and put to death.

All these locations have powerful echoes; not only because of the story they tell, but also because of the millions of pilgrims who have come through over the ages and left their marks on them. They build and rebuild monuments and churches over one another and these stones speak forcefully of the impact these events has had on mankind.

The filmmakers followed Jesus’ footsteps from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, through the actual sites, their history and transformations through the last 2000 years. They recreated events that bring forth the feel of Palestine ruled by Herod during Roman occupation. They reconstructed the history of the sites during alternating periods of Christian and Muslim conquest.

By using a well calibrated mixture of video shot in Israel, Cyprus, Athens and Rome, paintings and sculptures from churches and museums from more than a dozen countries and understated dramatizations, they have created a compelling documentary that delivers an emotionally charged story.

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