He is a scoundrel. He tyrannized his wife and daughter. His son is well known worldwide as J.C., while nobody has ever heard of his daughter, Ea. He got tired of everything before he created the world. This is why he creates Brussels. Then he created animals. When he realised something is missing, he creates mankind in his own image. For his own amusement, he creates different kind of religions and poisons people’s mind on warring in his own name. When that was not enough, he creates pain, all kinds of sickness, suffering, death, earthquake, airplane crash, hurricane and anything else that can make people’s life difficult, and the world unbearable to live in. He is God. He lives in Brussels. And this is a story of his ten year old daughter, Ea, who is about to write a whole brand new testament that will make the world a better place to live in.

The Brand New Testament, co-written and directed by Jaco Van Dormael, begins with little girl, Ea, who introduces herself as the daughter of God, who appears for us in a terrible image: dirty, beats up his daughter, is rude and disrespectful to his wife, who literally can’t say a single word without his permission. Then we find God (Benoît Poelvoorde) sitting in front of his computer where with a great joy creates one trouble after another for humans to suffer, such as a car accident and catastrophic situations. When Ea finds those frightening images, she decides to send a text message where she lets everyone know the day of their death. And afterwards, she escapes her father’s house to find six more disciples to write a brand new testament.

While the bible is being turned upside down in this film, this comedy offers even more ridiculously funny scenes, such as when God is being beaten up by a group of people when he tried to get some food from the garbage bin. And when he was sent to hospital, they treated him like a homeless. It’s hard to tell how the writers came out with such brilliant idea, but throughout the movie, you will find it impossible not being amazed by the approach, premise and with the movie itself as a whole. Ea’s journey on her way to find six more disciples is truly incredible. But the idea of giving the precise time to people about their date of death is something unreal, which actually worked for many. For instance, Marc (Serge Larivière) is one of the disciples who receives a message where he finds out that he has only 83 days left to live. Since now he knows not many days are left for him, he thinks of becoming a father, even though, he might never not survive until the child’s birth.

The Brand New Testament is highly intellectual, dark satire about religion, our understanding of the world, and the explanations of anything we are used to hearing but have never been satisfied with them fully. It also offers that if the God would be a Goddess, then the world would have been a much peaceful place to live. There would be no war, and the sky could have changed its color every day with different flowers. The plot of this film is so great that it can satisfy any viewer’s expectation. Sometimes it may not be so funny, if you take its subject seriously, but other than that, this film simply cannot be missed at any cost, and should be seen by anyone who loves intellectual comedy with great performances.