Ecobomb55

An ambition movie from the director Yelena Popovic, Moses the Black attempts to give a modern retelling of the ancient Christian monastic and martyr with an earnest effort, but with mixed results. The acting is overall solid, and Christian themes of martyrdom and loving sacrifice are presented in a respectful, but not preachy manner. Likewise, the movie doesn't shy away from explicit language and scenes of violence despite being a "Christian film". That being said, the pacing of the story and watcher's understanding of the characters leaves much to be desired. Popovic's other work, Man of God, suffered a similar criticism of not providing enough background information on characters. Unfortunately, this film suffers much the same where characters which are seemingly important to the story are given little to no backstory. The lack of fleshed out characters makes it hard to think of the saint - who was a real person - feel like anything more than a storybook character. For being the sophomore work of Popovic, this film does leave a lot to be desired, but I do appreciate her efforts to present the concepts of martyrdom and reconciliation in a manner not seen in many other Christian films.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]