| Jezus is een Palestijn | |
| Director: | Lodewijk Crijns |
| Producer: | Martin Lagestee |
| Starring: | Hans Teeuwen Kim van Kooten Dijn Blom Peer Mascini |
| Cinematography: | Menno Westendorp |
| Editing: | Wouter Jansen |
| Studio: | Lagestee Film BV |
| Distributor: | Warner Bros. (Netherlands) |
| Runtime: | 90 minutes |
| Country: | Netherlands |
| Language: | Dutch |
Jesus Is a Palestinian (Dutch: Jezus is een Palestijn) is a 1999 Dutch comedy film written and directed by Lodewijk Crijns. The film parodies on religious fanaticism and millennialism, which involves the topics of self mutilation, incest, and euthanasia,[1] [2] is the director's first full-length movie.[3] [4] It premiered at the 1999 International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Natasha (Kim van Kooten) goes to Limburg to collect her brother Ramses (Hans Teeuwen), who has joined a sect, prying him from the cult so he can consent to cutting their father's life support. The cult's leader Pieter Bouwman frowns upon sexual activity and, to prevent sex from happening, they have put a kind of lock, self-applied by way of piercing on the male member's penises. Ramses slowly develops a mind of his own and falls in love with Natasha's roommate, Lonneke (Dijn Blom). Ramses finds out that his sister and the nursing home staff are essentially trying to kill his father (Peer Mascini), and ends up delivering his father to a crackpot zealous Palestinian who prophesies the return of Christ. In the meantime, the cult is also out to get Ramses back, but Ramses now is unwilling to return to mandatory celibacy.
According to NRC Handelsblad, the film was a flop.[5] The Volkskrant critic, in a sometimes positive review, summarized the movie as "occasionally funny, but mostly superficial."[6] David Rooney reviewed the movie for Variety and commented positively on "Crijns' spirited direction and the appealing cast."[7]